🔗 Share this article

Considering he who's forfeited nearly 40 years of his life as a result of a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan maintains a unusually optimistic attitude.

When I met him last month, for what was his debriefing session since being freed from prison in May, he was upbeat and excited about getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the first time since he was detained in 1986.

That was the year of the violent killing of Diane Sindall in his home town of Birkenhead - an occurrence he said he was merely aware of because someone approached him in a pub at the time and said, "allegedly there's been a murder".

When he was sentenced the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was destined to a lifetime in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be persecuted by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "River Mersey Murderer" and "The Wolfman".

Adapting to a Digital World

Ahead of our conversation, he was rich with anecdotes about how since his freedom he has had to adapt to a radically changed world.

When he was arrested, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, the concept of the internet and Europe was still divided by the Iron Curtain.

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

Mr Sullivan described how trips to the shops now show how "the world has transformed" - from trying to figure 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 incarceration means he has been ignorant of the way so many elements of everyday life have changed - comparable to someone who has been asleep since the 1980s.

"Having endured 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 pick up your money - you're thinking, 'Amazing, what's going on here?'"

He now has a digital phone, after discovering doctor's appointments need to be arranged on something he now knows is called an 'mobile program'.

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

Emotional Effects

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

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

"It's required to be at your door at a certain time, otherwise the officers will go off at you", he said.

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

Desiring Closure

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is balanced by a desire for answers about how he came to be charged with an high-profile murder that he had no part in, and a bewilderment about why he still has not had an admission of error.

"My entire life vanished", he said.

"I lost all my freedom, 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 response off them."

"That's all I want, an apology [and to understand] the reason why they've done this to me", he said.

Law Enforcement Statement

Merseyside Police said "limited value to be gained for a review of this matter today" because of "advancements to investigative techniques and progress in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did forward 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 threatened 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 directly answer the question, but as part of a lengthy statement it said: "The force recognizes that there has been a significant injustice of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan explained about his modest ambition - an ambition that he said he had abandoned expectation of being able to realise at some points over his approximately 38 years behind bars.

"All I want to do now is continue with my own life and progress as I was before, and live my time out now".

His life ahead may be made easier by government compensation, paid to individuals affected of wrongful convictions.

This system is limited at £1.3m, a limit which it is estimated his final compensation will get very approach.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose sentence for a rape he did not commit was overturned in 2023, was only awarded an interim compensation payout earlier this year.

Guilty prisoners who confess to their crimes and are paroled get a accommodation and some help with living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is existing a simple existence, with his basic aspirations - although many think he is a millionaire in waiting.

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