Lecturer pays tribute to journalist Lyra McKee as a tenacious, passionate fighter

Lyra McKee Credit: ITV News

A Birmingham City University lecturer has paid tribute to "tenacious" "passionate" and "full of love" journalist Lyra McKee, who was killed this week as she watched the rioting in the Creggan area of Londonderry, on Thursday night.

Paul Bradshaw taught Lyra on the Masters programme at Birmingham City University and described her death as "devastating"

Two teenagers have been arrested by police and are being held under the Terrorism Act.

In his blog post he describes her as "tenacious, a fighter, passionate about journalism, and full of love for her family and partner."

He describes how impressed he was by her life experience before she approached him with an interest in the Masters course.

He describes how she was prepared to take on difficult stories, which could take years to come to fruition, and how she had crowdfunded in order to investigate the unsolved murder of a politician.

This video shows Lyra speaking about the challenges of reconciling religious institutions and LGBTQ rights.

A memorial fund set up in her memory has passed £50,000.

Other members of staff at the university have paid their own tributes.