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Considering he who's lost almost 40 years of his life due to a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan strikes a surprisingly hopeful outlook.

In our conversation last month, for what was his first interview since being released from prison in May, he was enthusiastic 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 event he said he was merely aware of because someone spoke to him in a pub at the time and said, "allegedly there's been a murder".

When he was convicted the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was sentenced to a extended term in some of Britain's highest-security category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "River Mersey Murderer" and "The Wolfman".

Navigating a Modern World

Ahead of our conversation, 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, no one had heard of the internet and Europe was still separated by the Iron Curtain.

He explained watching the demolition of the Berlin Wall from a shared television in prison.

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

Technological Surprises

His imprisonment means he has been oblivious to the way so many elements of everyday life have changed - almost like someone who has been asleep since the 1980s.

"Having endured 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, 'Amazing, what's going on here?'"

He now has a mobile device, after finding out doctor's appointments need to be booked on something he now knows is called an 'application'.

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

Psychological Impact

Mr Sullivan's 14,000 days in confinement have also led to an inevitable sense of system dependency.

He described how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he returned 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 specific hour, otherwise the officers will go off at you", he said.

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

Seeking Explanation

But Mr Sullivan's positivity is mixed with a desire for answers about how he came to be charged with an infamous murder that he had no part in, and a confusion about why he still has not had an admission of error.

"Everything is gone", he said.

"I lost all my freedom, 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 cannot proceed with my life if I can't get an explanation off them."

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

Police Position

Merseyside Police said "there would be little benefit 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 submit some of Mr Sullivan's accusations to the police oversight body, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now examine his claims that officers physically abused him and intimidated to link him to other crimes if he failed to confess 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".

Future Prospects

Mr Sullivan shared about his modest ambition - an ambition that he said he had abandoned expectation of being able to achieve at some points over his approximately 38 years behind bars.

"My only desire to do now is proceed with my own life and progress as I was before, and experience freedom now".

His life ahead may be made less challenging by government financial payment, paid to wrongly convicted people of judicial errors.

This scheme is restricted 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 time-consuming.

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

Admitted offenders who acknowledge their crimes and are released get a housing and some help with living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is existing a basic lifestyle, with his basic aspirations - although many consider he is a compensation recipient.

His lawyer, Sarah Myatt, said "there's not a figure that you could say that would be enough for losing 38 years of your life".