THREE friends accused of murdering a vulnerable young man and setting his body alight in a bin will face a retrial next April.

The case against Andrew Dwyer-Skeats, Ryan Woodmansey and Donna Chalk was stopped last month when their co-accused Lee Nicholls changed his plea to guilty while giving evidence.

Today all three appeared back before Winchester Crown Court to hear a new trial date has been set for April 9.

Jamie Dack's badly burned body was discovered on Easter Sunday by firefighters called to Empress Road where an industrial bin was on fire.

Dwyer-Skeats, 26, and Chalk, 21, of Bevois Mews, Southampton, and Woodmansey, 32, of no fixed abode, are all alleged to have played a part in his death.

Jamie, 22, suffered multiple stab wounds alleged to have been inflicted while he was at a one bedroom flat in Bevois Mews in the days before his body was found.

All three defendants deny murder but admit perverting the course of justice by disposing of and setting fire to Jamie's body.

Nicholls, 28, from Southampton Street, admitted murder while taking the stand to give evidence in his own defence. He awaits sentence.