A man is to face a fresh trial for the 2018 murder of a Derry father-of-eight after the Court of Appeal set aside his earlier conviction.

Sean Ciaran Joseph Rodgers, 38, with no fixed abode in Ballymena, Co Antrim, appeared at Belfast Crown Court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to the murder of 52-year-old Edward Jude John Meenan.

Mr Meenan’s partially clothed body was discovered in an alleyway off Creggan Street, Derry, on 25 November 2018. A post-mortem found he had sustained more than 42 stab wounds to his neck, chest, arm and legs.

Rodgers was found guilty by a jury at Belfast Crown Court in March 2022. During that trial he denied stabbing Mr Meenan, claiming he had used only his hands and feet in self-defence after two masked men entered a house where he was present and a violent confrontation broke out.

The Court of Appeal in May quashed the conviction, ruling there had been a “catalogue of procedural errors” that rendered it unsafe. A retrial was ordered, and the case returned to the Crown Court for arraignment.

At Friday’s hearing, defence solicitor Paul Farrell said a bail application had been lodged but he was adjourning it to another date after receiving information that required him to speak to the police officer handling the case. He told Madam Justice McBride the case had come back after a successful appeal and that senior and junior counsel from the appeal had been retained but could not be instructed because of the ongoing withdrawal of services by criminal barristers in a dispute over legal aid fees. The case had not been exempted from the industrial action.

Senior prosecution counsel Liam McCollum KC said that once barristers returned to work, a timetable could be set to move the case forward to trial.

Madam Justice McBride adjourned the case for review on 18 June 2026 and granted legal aid for two defence counsel. Rodgers was remanded in custody.