Peter Sullivan on living in a 'changed world'

Considering he who's forfeited approximately 40 years of his life due to a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan maintains a remarkably hopeful tone.

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

That was the year of the brutal homicide of Diane Sindall in his home town of Birkenhead - an occurrence 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 convicted the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was destined to a indefinite period in some of Britain's highest-security category A prisons where he would be hounded by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "The Mersey Ripper" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Navigating a Transformed World

Prior to our discussion, he was full of stories about how since his release he has had to adjust to a fundamentally altered 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 explained watching the collapse 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 figure out how self-checkouts function to realising that "in place of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Technological Challenges

His confinement means he has been unaware of the way so many aspects of everyday life have changed - similar to someone who has been asleep 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 pick up your money - you're thinking, 'Wow, 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 'application'.

He first became acquainted with them when he was sitting on a bus shortly after his liberation and saw people using smartphones. He only realised they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Emotional Impact

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

He recalled how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he went back to his bedroom and settled on his bed, because he was subconsciously waiting for a prison officer to come and confine 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 found myself thinking, 'What's happening?'"

Demanding Explanation

But Mr Sullivan's hope is mixed with a longing for answers about how he ended up being charged with an infamous 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.

"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."

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

Police Statement

Merseyside Police said "limited value to be gained for a review of this matter today" because of "the changes 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 look at 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 clearly address the question, but as part of a comprehensive declaration it said: "The force regrets that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan told me about his basic aspiration - an ambition that he said he had abandoned expectation of being able to accomplish at some points over his almost forty years behind bars.

"The sole objective to do now is continue with my own life and progress as I was before, and enjoy my remaining years now".

His future may be made less challenging by government compensation, paid to victims of judicial errors.

This system is capped at £1.3m, a limit which it is estimated his eventual payout will get very close to.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he had no involvement in was overturned in 2023, was only awarded an interim compensation payout earlier this year.

Convicted criminals who acknowledge their crimes and are freed get a housing and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is existing a basic lifestyle, with his basic aspirations - although many consider he is a future wealthy man.

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