The exonerated man on navigating a 'different world'

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

When I met him last month, for what was his first interview since being liberated from prison in May, he was upbeat and looking forward to getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the first time since he was arrested in 1986.

That was the year of the sexual attack murder of Diane Sindall in his birthplace of Birkenhead - an occurrence he said he only knew about 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 indefinite period in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "Merseyside Killer" and "Lunar Killer".

Adapting to a Modern World

Before our interview, he was abundant with tales about how since his release he has had to acclimate to a radically changed world.

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

He explained watching the demolition of the Berlin Wall from a shared television in prison.

Mr Sullivan told me how trips to the shops now show how "everything's changed" - 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 Surprises

His confinement means he has been unaware of the way so many aspects of everyday life have evolved - almost like someone who has been unconscious since the 1980s.

"After spending so long in prison and finding out 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 digital phone, after learning doctor's appointments need to be arranged on something he now knows is called an 'application'.

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.

Mental Impact

Mr Sullivan's 14,000 days in custody have also led to an inevitable sense of institutionalisation.

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

"It's required 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?'"

Seeking Answers

But Mr Sullivan's positivity is mixed with a yearning for answers about how he came to be charged with an notorious murder that he was innocent of, and a perplexity about why he still has not had an expression of regret.

"My entire life vanished", he said.

"My liberty was taken, 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 explanation off them."

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

Police Response

Merseyside Police said "there would be little benefit to be gained for a re-examination of this matter today" because of "advancements to investigative techniques and developments 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 beat him up and intimidated to link him to other crimes if he refused to admit 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 lengthy statement it said: "The force recognizes that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Future Prospects

Mr Sullivan explained about his simple goal - an ambition that he said he had abandoned expectation of being able to accomplish at some points over his nearly four decades behind bars.

"All I want to do now is proceed with my own life and move forward as I was before, and experience freedom now".

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

This system is limited at £1.3m, a limit which it is believed his resulting award will get very near.

But the system is not automatic, and it is time-consuming.

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he did not commit was quashed in 2023, was only given an provisional award earlier this year.

Admitted offenders who admit to their crimes and are freed get a accommodation 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 basic lifestyle, with his humble goals - although many believe he is a compensation recipient.

His attorney, Sarah Myatt, said "there's not a figure that you could say that would be enough for sacrificing 38 years of your life".