Man jailed for murder of father-of-nine has conviction quashed

A man jailed for the murder of a father-of-nine, who was stabbed more than 50 times, is to have his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal.

Sean Rodgers, 38, was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years for the murder of Edward Meenan in Londonderry in 2018.

On Friday, senior judges identified procedural errors which they said meant the guilty verdict was unsafe.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan directed that Rodgers will now face a retrial.

"We consider a retrial is appropriate in this case," she said.

No further details on the ruling can be disclosed at this stage for legal reasons.

Rodgers remains in custody but may seek release on bail at a later stage.

Meenan, 52, was stabbed and beaten with a suspected baseball bat outside a house in the Creggan Street area of Derry in November 2018.

Many of the knife wounds were assessed as having been inflicted when he was already dead or close to death.

The victim's body was then stripped down to his boxer shorts and dumped in an alleyway.

He had arrived at the house alongside his friend William McConnell, with both of them wearing balaclavas.

Fighting broke out after three men emerged from the property to confront the pair.

McConnell managed to flee the scene, but Meenan was subjected to what the trial judge described as a "sustained and brutal" assault.

Rodgers and his two co-defendants, Derek Creswell, 34, and Ryan Walters, 27, accepted being at the house but all initially denied involvement.

In 2022, however, Creswell admitted the murder and was ordered to serve at least 15 years in jail, while Walters received an eight-year sentence following his conviction for manslaughter.

Rodgers was also found guilty of Meenan's murder and handed a minimum 18-year prison term.

His legal team mounted a bid to overturn the conviction on the grounds that he was denied a fair trial.

He claimed to have acted in self-defence amid fears the masked men who appeared at the house were from the IRA, the Court of Appeal was told.

Rodgers insisted he only attacked Meenan with his feet and fists, denying any use of weapons or stabbing the deceased.

His barrister challenged how the trial judge dealt with issues around loss of control and the justification for successfully establishing self-defence: that the use of force must be necessary and proportionate to any threat.

It was also highlighted how Rodgers, a man with an IQ of 63, had been left without legal representatives after defence lawyers were discharged during the process.

The prosecution argued that none of the points raised had any impact on the fairness of Rodgers' trial for the murder of Meenan.

After Friday's judgement, Rodgers' solicitor Ciaran O'Hare said: "The court has recognised there were a number of significant procedural flaws in the conduct of the Crown Court trial which undermined the fairness and safety of our client's conviction."

He said the judgement represented "an important step towards justice being restored".