🔗 Share this article

For someone who's sacrificed approximately 40 years of his life because of a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan maintains a remarkably positive attitude.

When I met him last month, for what was his initial media appearance since being liberated from prison in May, he was enthusiastic and eagerly anticipating getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the first time since he was taken into custody in 1986.

That was the year of the brutal homicide of Diane Sindall in his local community of Birkenhead - an event he said he only knew about because someone spoke to him in a pub at the time and said, "apparently there's been a murder".

When he was found guilty the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was sentenced to a lifetime in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "Birkenhead's Monster", "Merseyside Killer" and "The Wolfman".

Adjusting to a Digital World

Before our interview, he was full of stories about how since his exoneration he has had to adapt to a fundamentally altered world.

When he was detained, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, few knew about the internet and Europe was still divided by the Iron Curtain.

He described watching the demolition of the Berlin Wall from a communal television in prison.

Mr Sullivan described how trips to the shops now show how "society has evolved" - from trying to work out how self-checkouts operate to realising that "in place of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Digital Surprises

His confinement means he has been unaware of the way so many facets of everyday life have changed - similar to someone who has been asleep since the 1980s.

"Following so long in prison and learning there's no DHSS [Department of Health and Social Security, now the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)] where you can receive your money - you're thinking, 'Wow, what's going on here?'"

He now has a smartphone, after finding out doctor's appointments need to be scheduled on something he now knows is called an 'application'.

He first became acquainted with them when he was riding on a bus shortly after his liberation and saw people twiddling with smartphones. He only recognized they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Psychological Effects

Mr Sullivan's 14,000 days in custody have also led to an unavoidable sense of prison conditioning.

He recalled how after his release, one morning in his flat he went back to his bedroom and settled on his bed, because he was unconsciously waiting for a prison officer to come and lock him back into his cell.

"You've got to be at your door at a designated moment, otherwise the officers will yell at you", he said.

"I found myself thinking, 'What's happening?'"

Seeking Explanation

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is tempered by a desire for answers about how he ended up being charged with an notorious murder that he didn't commit, and a bewilderment about why he still has not had an admission of error.

"My entire life vanished", he said.

"Freedom disappeared, I lost my mother since I've been in prison, I've lost my father.

"It hurts because I was absent for them", he said.

"It's impossible to continue with my life if I can't get an answer off them."

"My only request, an apology [and to understand] the reason why they've done this to me", he said.

Authorities Statement

Merseyside Police said "minimal advantage to be gained for a reassessment of this matter today" because of "the changes to investigative techniques and developments in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did refer some of Mr Sullivan's accusations to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now investigate his claims that officers beat him up and warned to link him to other crimes if he failed to confess to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would issue an apology, the force did not clearly address the question, but as part of a detailed response it said: "The force acknowledges that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan shared about his simple goal - an ambition that he said he had given up of being able to achieve at some points over his almost forty years behind bars.

"The sole objective to do now is continue with my own life and carry on as I was before, and experience freedom now".

His future may be made easier by government financial payment, paid to wrongly convicted people of wrongful convictions.

This system is limited at £1.3m, a maximum which it is estimated his resulting award will get very approach.

But the process is not guaranteed, and it is time-consuming.

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he was innocent of was quashed in 2023, was only granted an interim compensation payout earlier this year.

Guilty prisoners who confess to their crimes and are freed get a accommodation and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an exonerated person, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is living a basic lifestyle, with his modest ambitions - although many think he is a future wealthy man.

His legal representative, Sarah Myatt, said "no sum that you could say that would be adequate for forfeiting 38 years of your life".