The exonerated man on experiencing a 'changed society'

For someone who's lost approximately 40 years of his life because of a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan strikes a surprisingly optimistic outlook.

During our encounter last month, for what was his first interview since being released from prison in May, he was cheerful 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 sexual attack murder of Diane Sindall in his local community of Birkenhead - an incident he said he was merely aware of because someone spoke to him in a pub at the time and said, "allegedly there's been a murder".

When he was found guilty 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 Beast of Birkenhead", "River Mersey Murderer" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Navigating a Modern World

Ahead of our conversation, he was rich with anecdotes about how since his exoneration 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 separated by the Iron Curtain.

He recalled watching the fall of the Berlin Wall from a public television in prison.

Mr Sullivan explained how trips to the shops now show how "everything's changed" - from trying to figure out how self-checkouts operate to realising that "rather than having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Technological Adjustments

His imprisonment means he has been ignorant of the way so many facets of everyday life have changed - almost like someone who has been unconscious since the 1980s.

"Following 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 collect 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 arranged on something he now knows is called an 'mobile program'.

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

Emotional Consequences

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

He described 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 secure him into his cell.

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

"I was just sitting there thinking, 'What's happening?'"

Demanding Closure

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is mixed with a longing for answers about how he was charged with an notorious murder that he had no part in, and a confusion about why he still has not had an admission of error.

"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 pains me because I couldn't be present for them", he said.

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

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

Law Enforcement Position

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

The force did forward some of Mr Sullivan's accusations to the police regulatory agency, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now look at his claims that officers physically abused him and intimidated to link him to other crimes if he refused to admit to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would apologise, the force did not specifically respond the question, but as part of a detailed response it said: "The force regrets that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Looking Ahead

Mr Sullivan shared about his basic aspiration - an ambition that he said he had given up of being able to accomplish at some points over his approximately 38 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 life ahead may be made easier by government monetary award, paid to wrongly convicted people of miscarriages of justice.

This scheme is restricted at £1.3m, a maximum which it is thought his eventual payout will get very close to.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose conviction for a rape he had no involvement in was overturned in 2023, was only given an temporary payment earlier this year.

Guilty prisoners who confess to their crimes and are released get a housing and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an innocent man, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is surviving a simple existence, with his humble goals - although many consider he is a future wealthy man.

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