Peter Sullivan on living in a 'different reality'

Considering he who's sacrificed approximately 40 years of his life because of a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan strikes a unusually positive attitude.

When I met him last month, for what was his debriefing session since being freed from prison in May, he was cheerful and eagerly anticipating 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 had limited information regarding 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 condemned to a lifetime 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 Transformed World

Before our interview, he was full of stories about how since his freedom he has had to adjust to a fundamentally altered world.

When he was arrested, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, few knew about the internet and Europe was still separated by the Iron Curtain.

He described watching the collapse of the Berlin Wall from a shared 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 "in place of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Technological Challenges

His imprisonment means he has been oblivious to the way so many aspects of everyday life have evolved - almost like someone who has been in hibernation since the 1980s.

"Following 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 collect your money - you're thinking, 'Wow, what's going on here?'"

He now has a mobile device, after learning doctor's appointments need to be scheduled on something he now knows is called an 'mobile program'.

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

Psychological Effects

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

He described how after his release, one morning in his flat he walked back to his bedroom and sat down on his bed, because he was unconsciously 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 yell at you", he said.

"I found myself thinking, 'What's happening?'"

Seeking Answers

But Mr Sullivan's positivity is balanced by a yearning for answers about how he ended up being charged with an high-profile murder that he didn't commit, 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 pains me because I was absent for them", he said.

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

"The sole thing I need, an apology [and to understand] the cause behind they've done this to me", he said.

Authorities Statement

Merseyside Police said "minimal advantage to be gained for a reassessment of this matter today" because of "the changes to investigative techniques and developments 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 investigate his claims that officers beat him up and warned to link him to other crimes if he didn't plead guilty to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would apologise, the force did not clearly address the question, but as part of a lengthy statement it said: "The force acknowledges that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Future Prospects

Mr Sullivan explained about his modest ambition - an ambition that he said he had abandoned expectation of being able to achieve at some points over his almost forty years behind bars.

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

His life ahead may be made easier by government compensation, paid to victims of judicial errors.

This scheme is restricted at £1.3m, a limit which it is thought his resulting award will get very close to.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he was innocent of was dismissed in 2023, was only granted an provisional award earlier this year.

Admitted offenders who admit to their crimes and are released get a housing and some support regarding living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an innocent man, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is living a modest life, with his humble goals - although many consider he is a millionaire in waiting.

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".