Peter Sullivan on ‘different world’ after 14,000 days in prison

For someone who lost nearly 40 years of his life for a crime he did not commit, Peter Sullivan has an extremely optimistic tone.

When I met him last month for his first interview since being released from prison in May, he was upbeat and looking forward to going to Anfield and watching Liverpool play for the first time since being detained in 1986.

This was the year of the sexual assault murder in Diane Sindall’s hometown of Birkenhead; It was an incident that he only knew about because someone had turned to him in a bar at the time and said “apparently there had been a murder.”

When convicted at Liverpool Crown Court the following year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in some of Britain’s toughest category A prisons, where he was pursued by the tabloid nicknames “The Birkenhead Beast”, “The Mersey Ripper” and “The Werewolf”.

Before our interview, he was full of stories about how he had to adapt to a completely different world since his release.

Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street when she was detained, no one knew the internet existed and Europe was still divided by the Iron Curtain.

He explained that he watched the Berlin Wall fall on the shared television in the prison.

Mr. Sullivan told me that trips to stores show how “everything has changed” now — from trying to figure out how self-checkout works to realizing that “instead of a checkbook, you’re carrying it on your phone.”

His incarceration means he is unaware that many aspects of daily life have changed; almost like someone who has been sleeping since the 1980s.

“After being in prison for so long and finding out there was no DHSS [Department of Health and Social Security, now the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)] Where can you get your money? ‘Wow, what’s going on here?’ ” you think.

He now has a smartphone after learning that doctor appointments must be booked through something he knows is called an ‘app’.

He first met them shortly after his release, when he was sitting on the bus and saw people playing with smartphones. He only realized that these were phones when he saw someone put them to his ear.

Mr. Sullivan’s 14,000 days in detention also led to a sense of inevitable institutionalization.

He recalled how one morning after his release he walked to his bedroom in his apartment and sat on his bed because he was subconsciously waiting for a prison officer to come and lock him back in his cell.

“You have to be at your door at a certain time, otherwise the police will attack you,” he said.

“I’m sitting there wondering, ‘What am I doing?’ “I was thinking.”

But Mr. Sullivan’s optimism was tempered by longing for answers about how he was accused of a disgraceful murder he did not commit and confusion about why he still has not apologized.

“I lost everything,” he said.

“I lost all my freedom, I lost my mother and my father since I went to prison.

“It hurts because I’m not there for them,” he said.

“If I don’t get an answer from them, I can’t move on with my life.”

“That’s all I want, an apology [and to understand] “The reason they did this to me,” he said.

Merseyside Police said there would be “little benefit from examining this matter today” due to “changes in investigative techniques and developments in the law over the last 40 years”.

Police referred some of Mr Sullivan’s allegations to police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC); That body will now examine his allegations that officers beat him and threatened to implicate him in other crimes if he did not confess to the murder of Diane Sindall.

Asked if he would apologise, the police did not respond directly but said as part of a lengthy statement: “The force regrets that a serious miscarriage of justice has occurred in this case.”

Mr. Sullivan told me of his modest ambition; It’s an ambition he says he lost hope of realizing at some points during his nearly four decades behind bars.

“The only thing I want to do now is to continue with my own life, continue as before and spend my time.”

State compensation paid to victims of miscarriages of justice may make his future easier.

This scheme has a cap of £1.3 million and its final payout is thought to come very close to this.

However, the process is not automatic and is lengthy.

Andrew Malkinson, whose conviction for a rape he did not commit was overturned in 2023 It only decided to pay temporary compensation at the beginning of this year.

Criminal inmates who plead guilty and are released on parole have a place to live and receive some assistance with living expenses. Mr. Sullivan, as an innocent man, is not eligible for this assistance.

And so he lives a modest life with modest ambitions – even though many believe he is a millionaire in waiting.

“There’s no number you can say would be enough to lose 38 years of your life,” said his lawyer, Sarah Myatt.