TRIBUTES have been paid to a prominent Romsey-born television news correspondent who has died after suffering a stroke.

Liz MacKean worked for several news programmes on the BBC for more than 25 years.

Renowned as one of the best journalists around, Ms MacKean, 52, was born in Romsey, the second of four daughters of Tom MacKean, a solicitor and circuit judge, and his wife, Muriel.

She began her career at BBC Radio Solent, before presenting on Breakfast and reporting from Northern Ireland and Scotland.

But after more than two decades at the corporation, she left in 2013 following a row over the decision to shelve her investigation for Newsnight about disgraced DJ Jimmy Savile paedophile activities and the cover-up that allowed him to evade justice.

Ms MacKean went on to make films for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme.

Fellow journalist and Newsnight reporter David Grossman, also a former Radio Solent journalist, dubbed the mother-of-two “that rarest of creatures in the world of broadcast news”.

“In an industry full of egos and elbows, Liz was a campaigning journalist without even the smallest measure of sanctimony or self-regard,” he added in an obituary in a national newspaper.

“I first met Liz in the early 1990s when she arrived in the newsroom of BBC Radio Solent. She was so full of competence and confidence we were all in awe of her. For a journalist she had a skill worth more than any qualification – people wanted to tell her things. Her innate curiosity and personal warmth found stories and, just as easily, devoted friends.

“She was a wonderfully fun woman to work with and be around. A glass with Liz after a day of filming was one of the great pleasures of working life at Newsnight. However stressful the day or upsetting the subject matter of the work, Liz would very soon have everyone laughing.”

Ms MacKean and her partner of 22 years, Donna Rowlands, had two children. Their daughter, Alex, was born in 2001, and their son, Will, in 2002. The couple married as soon as the change in the law allowed.

Writing on the corporation’s website, BBC director of news James Harding also paid tribute to Ms MacKean.

“In Northern Ireland, she won the trust of all sides and produced some of the most insightful and hard-hitting reporting of the conflict,” he said.

“It was as an investigative reporter that she really shone, shining a light on issues from the dumping of toxic waste off the African coast to Jimmy Savile, the story for which she is probably best known.”

She is survived by Donna, Alex and Will, her parents and sisters.