The exonerated man on living in a 'changed reality'

For someone who's sacrificed nearly 40 years of his life due to a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan strikes a surprisingly hopeful tone.

During our encounter last month, for what was his initial media appearance since being released from prison in May, he was enthusiastic and excited about getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the opening match since he was arrested in 1986.

That was the year of the violent killing of Diane Sindall in his local community of Birkenhead - an event he said he was merely aware of because someone turned to him in a pub at the time and said, "reportedly there's been a murder".

When he was found guilty the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was condemned to a indefinite period in some of Britain's highest-security category A prisons where he would be hounded by his tabloid nicknames "Birkenhead's Monster", "River Mersey Murderer" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Adapting to a Digital World

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

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

He described watching the collapse of the Berlin Wall from a public television in prison.

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

Technological Surprises

His incarceration means he has been unaware of the way so many facets of everyday life have evolved - almost like someone who has been in hibernation 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 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 scheduled on something he now knows is called an 'mobile program'.

He first became familiar with them when he was sitting 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.

Psychological Impact

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

He remembered how after his freedom, 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 must be at your door at a designated moment, otherwise the officers will discipline you", he said.

"I remained thinking, 'What am I doing?'"

Desiring Answers

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is tempered by a longing for answers about how he was charged with an infamous murder that he had no part in, and a perplexity 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.

"It hurts because I couldn't be present for them", he said.

"I cannot proceed with my life if I can't get an answer off them."

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

Authorities Response

Merseyside Police said "minimal advantage 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 claims to the police oversight body, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now investigate 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 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 grave miscarriage of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan explained about his basic aspiration - an ambition that he said he had given up 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 progress as I was before, and experience freedom now".

His future may be made easier by government monetary award, paid to victims of judicial errors.

This system is limited at £1.3m, a cap which it is believed his eventual payout will get very near.

But the procedure is not immediate, and it is protracted.

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he was innocent of was quashed in 2023, was only awarded an temporary payment earlier this year.

Admitted offenders who admit to their crimes and are released get a housing and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not entitled to that help.

And so he is surviving a basic lifestyle, with his modest ambitions - although many think he is a future wealthy man.

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