A man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing the gun used to shoot journalist Lyra McKee in Derry.
29 year old Niall Sheerin of Tyrconnell Street in Derry City, pleaded guilty earlier this year to possession of a pistol and ammunition with intent to enable another person to endanger life.
The defendant, from Tyrconnell Street in Derry, admitted possession of the weapon on dates unknown between September 11 2018 and June 6 2020.
At an earlier sentence hearing, a defence barrister insisted Sheerin had no knowledge of how the weapon had been used prior to him storing it for a “short period of time”.
McKee, also 29, was shot dead as she observed rioting in the Creggan area in 2019.
Ballistics tests showed the pistol had been used in five shootings in the city over a 21 month period and the prosecution contended that Sheerin was aware that he was storing a gun on behalf of the New IRA.
