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For someone who's forfeited approximately 40 years of his life due to a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan maintains a unusually positive outlook.

In our conversation last month, for what was his debriefing session since being liberated from prison in May, he was upbeat and eagerly anticipating getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the initial occasion since he was detained 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 turned to him in a pub at the time and said, "reportedly there's been a murder".

When he was convicted the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was destined to a extended term in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "Birkenhead's Monster", "The Mersey Ripper" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Navigating a Digital World

Before our interview, he was rich with anecdotes about how since his freedom he has had to adapt to a fundamentally altered world.

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

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

Mr Sullivan explained how trips to the shops now show how "everything's changed" - from trying to figure out how self-checkouts work to realising that "instead of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Digital Adjustments

His imprisonment means he has been oblivious to the way so many aspects of everyday life have evolved - 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 receive your money - you're thinking, 'Goodness, what's going on here?'"

He now has a smartphone, after discovering doctor's appointments need to be scheduled 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 freedom and saw people twiddling with smartphones. He only realised they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Mental Effects

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

He remembered how after his liberation, one morning in his flat he walked back to his bedroom and sat down 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 go off at you", he said.

"I found myself thinking, 'Why am I here?'"

Demanding Explanation

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is mixed with a desire for answers about how he was charged with an infamous murder that he had no part in, and a confusion about why he still has not had an expression of regret.

"My entire life vanished", he said.

"I lost all my freedom, I lost my mother since I've been in prison, I've lost my father.

"It hurts because I was absent for them", he said.

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

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

Law Enforcement Statement

Merseyside Police said "limited value to be gained for a review 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 accusations to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now investigate his claims that officers physically abused him and intimidated 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 specifically respond the question, but as part of a comprehensive declaration it said: "The force regrets that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan explained about his simple goal - an ambition that he said he had given up of being able to achieve at some points over his almost forty years behind bars.

"The sole objective to do now is proceed with my own life and carry on as I was before, and live my time out now".

His future may be made more manageable by government compensation, paid to wrongly convicted people of wrongful convictions.

This system is limited at £1.3m, a cap which it is believed his final compensation will get very close to.

But the system is not guaranteed, and it is protracted.

Andrew Malkinson, whose conviction for a rape he was innocent of was dismissed in 2023, was only given an temporary payment earlier this year.

Guilty prisoners who admit to their crimes and are freed get a place to live and some support regarding living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an innocent man, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is existing a modest life, with his modest ambitions - although many believe he is a millionaire in waiting.

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