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Considering he who's forfeited almost 40 years of his life as a result of a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan maintains a remarkably hopeful attitude.

In our conversation last month, for what was his first interview since being liberated from prison in May, he was cheerful and eagerly anticipating getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the first time since he was taken into custody in 1986.

That was the year of the brutal homicide of Diane Sindall in his birthplace of Birkenhead - an event he said he was merely aware of because someone turned 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 sentenced to a indefinite period in some of Britain's most secure category A prisons where he would be persecuted by his tabloid nicknames "The Beast of Birkenhead", "The Mersey Ripper" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Adapting to a Modern World

Prior to our discussion, he was abundant with tales about how since his release he has had to adapt to a fundamentally altered world.

When he was arrested, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, few knew about 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 "society has evolved" - from trying to work out how self-checkouts function to realising that "instead of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Digital Adjustments

His incarceration means he has been unaware of the way so many aspects of everyday life have changed - comparable to someone who has been asleep since the 1980s.

"After spending 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 pick up your money - you're thinking, 'Amazing, what's going on here?'"

He now has a smartphone, after discovering doctor's appointments need to be booked on something he now knows is called an 'mobile program'.

He first became acquainted with them when he was sitting 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.

Emotional Effects

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

He remembered how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he walked back to his bedroom and positioned himself on his bed, because he was automatically waiting for a prison officer to come and lock him back into his cell.

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

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

Desiring Closure

But Mr Sullivan's hope is tempered by a yearning for answers about how he came to be charged with an high-profile murder that he had no part in, and a confusion about why he still has not had an apology.

"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 wasn't there for them", he said.

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

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

Authorities Response

Merseyside Police said "limited value to be gained for a review of this matter today" because of "developments to investigative techniques and developments in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did submit some of Mr Sullivan's allegations to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now investigate his claims that officers physically abused him and threatened to link him to other crimes if he failed to confess to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would express regret, the force did not specifically respond the question, but as part of a detailed response it said: "The force recognizes that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan shared about his basic aspiration - an ambition that he said he had given up of being able to realise at some points over his approximately 38 years behind bars.

"All I want to do now is continue with my own life and move forward as I was before, and experience freedom now".

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

This scheme is capped at £1.3m, a limit which it is estimated his final compensation will get very near.

But the system is not immediate, and it is lengthy.

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he did not commit was overturned in 2023, was only given an provisional award earlier this year.

Admitted offenders who confess to their crimes and are paroled get a place to live and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not eligible for that help.

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

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