🔗 Share this article The exonerated man on living in a 'changed society' The wrongly convicted man sobbed when the court declared it was throwing out his guilty verdict For someone who's lost nearly 40 years of his life because of a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan strikes a surprisingly optimistic tone. When I met him last month, for what was his debriefing session since being liberated 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 birthplace 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 destined to a extended term in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "Birkenhead's Monster", "River Mersey Murderer" and "The Wolfman". Adjusting to a Transformed World Ahead of our conversation, he was abundant with tales about how since his freedom he has had to adapt to a completely different world. When he was detained, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, few knew about 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 "the world has transformed" - from trying to work out how self-checkouts operate to realising that "instead of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone". Modern Surprises His confinement means he has been unaware of the way so many aspects of everyday life have transformed - almost like someone who has been unconscious since the 1980s. "After spending so long in prison and discovering 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 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 sitting 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. Emotional Consequences Mr Sullivan's 14,000 days in confinement have also led to an inevitable sense of institutionalisation. The journalist spoke to Peter Sullivan anonymously in an interview last month He remembered how after his liberation, one morning in his flat he returned to his bedroom and positioned himself on his bed, because he was automatically waiting for a prison officer to come and lock him back into his cell. "You must be at your door at a certain time, otherwise the officers will yell at you", he said. "I was just sitting there thinking, 'What am I doing?'" Seeking Explanation 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 had no part in, and a confusion about why he still has not had an admission of error. "Everything is gone", 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. "It's impossible to continue with my life if I can't get an response off them." "My only request, an apology [and to understand] the reason why they've done this to me", he said. Peter Sullivan was convicted of assaulting Diane Sindall to death in a "brutal killing" Law Enforcement Response Merseyside Police said "there would be little benefit to be gained for a reassessment of this matter today" because of "developments to investigative techniques and progress in the law over the last 40 years". The force did refer some of Mr Sullivan's accusations to the police oversight body, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now examine his claims that officers beat him up and threatened to link him to other crimes if he refused to admit to Diane Sindall's murder. When asked if it would issue an apology, the force did not directly answer 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". Future Prospects Mr Sullivan told me about his simple goal - an ambition that he said he had lost hope of being able to accomplish at some points over his almost forty years behind bars. "The sole objective to do now is proceed with my own life and move forward as I was before, and experience freedom now". Diane Sindall, 21, was due to be married when she was tragically died His life ahead may be made easier by government monetary award, paid to individuals affected of judicial errors. This scheme is capped at £1.3m, a limit which it is thought his eventual payout will get very close to. But the process is not automatic, and it is time-consuming. Andrew Malkinson, whose sentence for a rape he did not commit was overturned in 2023, was only given an provisional award earlier this year. Convicted criminals who acknowledge their crimes and are released get a place to live and some support regarding living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an exonerated person, is not qualified for that help. And so he is surviving a modest life, with his modest ambitions - although many believe he is a compensation recipient. His legal representative, Sarah Myatt, said "no sum that you could say that would be adequate for losing 38 years of your life".