🔗 Share this article

For someone who's sacrificed nearly 40 years of his life as a result of a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan strikes a remarkably optimistic outlook.

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

That was the year of the brutal homicide of Diane Sindall in his birthplace of Birkenhead - an incident he said he had limited information regarding because someone turned to him in a pub at the time and said, "allegedly there's been a murder".

When he was convicted the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was sentenced to a extended term in some of Britain's most secure category A prisons where he would be hounded by his tabloid nicknames "The Beast of Birkenhead", "River Mersey Murderer" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Navigating a Modern World

Prior to our discussion, he was abundant with tales about how since his release he has had to adjust to a radically changed world.

When he was arrested, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, no one had heard of the internet and Europe was still partitioned by the Iron Curtain.

He explained watching the fall of the Berlin Wall from a communal television in prison.

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

Technological Challenges

His imprisonment means he has been ignorant of the way so many elements of everyday life have transformed - comparable to someone who has been unconscious since the 1980s.

"After spending 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 collect your money - you're thinking, 'Goodness, what's going on here?'"

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

He first became knowledgeable about them when he was traveling on a bus shortly after his freedom and saw people operating smartphones. He only recognized they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Emotional Impact

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

He described how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he returned to his bedroom and sat down on his bed, because he was automatically waiting for a prison officer to come and secure him into his cell.

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

"I found myself thinking, 'What am I doing?'"

Desiring Answers

But Mr Sullivan's hope is balanced by a yearning for answers about how he ended up being charged with an notorious murder that he was innocent of, and a bewilderment about why he still has not had an apology.

"I've lost everything", he said.

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

"The pain is deep because I was absent for them", he said.

"I can't carry on with my life if I can't get an answer off them."

"That's all I want, an apology [and to understand] the cause behind 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 "advancements to investigative techniques and developments in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did submit some of Mr Sullivan's allegations to the police regulatory agency, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now examine his claims that officers assaulted him and intimidated to link him to other crimes if he didn't plead guilty to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would express regret, 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 serious failure of justice in this case".

Future Prospects

Mr Sullivan explained about his modest ambition - an ambition that he said he had lost hope of being able to achieve at some points over his nearly four decades behind bars.

"The sole objective to do now is proceed with my own life and carry on as I was before, and live my time out now".

His life ahead may be made more manageable by government monetary award, paid to wrongly convicted people of miscarriages of justice.

This program is restricted at £1.3m, a limit which it is estimated his final compensation will get very close to.

But the system is not automatic, and it is protracted.

Andrew Malkinson, whose conviction for a rape he did not commit was dismissed in 2023, was only granted an temporary payment earlier this year.

Guilty prisoners who confess to their crimes and are released get a housing and some support regarding living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not eligible for that help.

And so he is existing a modest life, with his modest ambitions - although many think he is a future wealthy man.

His lawyer, Sarah Myatt, said "no amount that you could say that would be enough for sacrificing 38 years of your life".