The exonerated man on navigating a 'transformed reality'

Considering he who's sacrificed nearly 40 years of his life due to a crime he was innocent of, Peter Sullivan projects a surprisingly optimistic outlook.

In our conversation last month, for what was his first interview since being freed from prison in May, he was enthusiastic and excited about getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the initial occasion since he was taken into custody in 1986.

That was the year of the violent killing of Diane Sindall in his birthplace of Birkenhead - an occurrence he said he was merely aware of because someone spoke to him in a pub at the time and said, "apparently there's been a murder".

When he was convicted the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was sentenced to a lifetime in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "Merseyside Killer" and "The Wolfman".

Adjusting to a Digital World

Ahead of our conversation, he was rich with anecdotes about how since his release he has had to adapt to a completely different world.

When he was arrested, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, the concept of 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 work to realising that "in place of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Digital Surprises

His confinement means he has been oblivious to the way so many facets of everyday life have changed - similar to someone who has been unconscious 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, '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 sitting on a bus shortly after his freedom and saw people operating smartphones. He only understood they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Emotional Effects

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

He described how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he returned to his bedroom and positioned himself on his bed, because he was unconsciously waiting for a prison officer to come and secure him into his cell.

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

"I found myself thinking, 'What am I doing?'"

Desiring Closure

But Mr Sullivan's hope is tempered by a yearning for answers about how he ended up being charged with an high-profile murder that he didn't commit, and a confusion about why he still has not had an expression of regret.

"Everything is gone", he said.

"My liberty was taken, I lost my mother since I've been in prison, I've lost my father.

"The pain is deep because I wasn't there for them", he said.

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

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

Police Position

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

The force did submit some of Mr Sullivan's allegations to the police regulatory agency, 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 issue an apology, the force did not clearly address the question, but as part of a detailed response it said: "The force recognizes that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan shared about his simple goal - an ambition that he said he had lost hope of being able to realise at some points over his nearly four decades behind bars.

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

His prospects may be made more manageable by government compensation, paid to individuals affected of judicial errors.

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

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

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

Convicted criminals who admit to their crimes and are released get a housing and some help with living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an exonerated person, is not eligible for that help.

And so he is living a simple existence, with his humble goals - although many think he is a millionaire in waiting.

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