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Considering he who's lost almost 40 years of his life as a result of a crime he was innocent of, Peter Sullivan projects a unusually hopeful outlook.

During our encounter last month, for what was his initial media appearance since being liberated from prison in May, he was cheerful and eagerly anticipating getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the initial occasion since he was arrested 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 approached him in a pub at the time and said, "reportedly there's been a murder".

When he was found guilty the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was condemned to a lifetime in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be hounded by his tabloid nicknames "The Beast of Birkenhead", "The Mersey Ripper" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Adjusting to a Transformed World

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

When he was detained, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, the concept of the internet and Europe was still partitioned by the Iron Curtain.

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

Mr Sullivan explained how trips to the shops now show how "the world has transformed" - from trying to understand how self-checkouts operate to realising that "rather than having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Technological Challenges

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

"Following 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 pick up your money - you're thinking, 'Wow, what's going on here?'"

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

He first became acquainted with them when he was riding on a bus shortly after his release and saw people twiddling with smartphones. He only realised they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Psychological Effects

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

He described how after his release, 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've got to be at your door at a designated moment, otherwise the officers will yell at you", he said.

"I was just sitting there thinking, 'Why am I here?'"

Desiring Closure

But Mr Sullivan's positivity is balanced by a yearning for answers about how he came to be charged with an notorious murder that he didn't commit, and a perplexity about why he still has not had an expression of regret.

"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.

"It's impossible to continue with my life if I can't get an answer off them."

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

Law Enforcement Response

Merseyside Police said "there would be little benefit to be gained for a review of this matter today" because of "developments to investigative techniques and improvements in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did refer 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 beat him up and warned 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 directly answer the question, but as part of a lengthy statement it said: "The force acknowledges that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice in this case".

Looking Ahead

Mr Sullivan shared about his basic aspiration - an ambition that he said he had lost hope of being able to realise at some points over his almost forty years behind bars.

"All I want to do now is continue with my own life and carry on as I was before, and enjoy my remaining years now".

His prospects may be made less challenging by government monetary award, paid to individuals affected of wrongful convictions.

This system is capped at £1.3m, a cap which it is thought his resulting award will get very approach.

But the procedure is not automatic, and it is protracted.

Andrew Malkinson, whose sentence for a rape he did not commit was quashed in 2023, was only awarded an temporary payment earlier this year.

Guilty prisoners who confess to their crimes and are paroled get a accommodation and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an exonerated person, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is existing a modest life, with his modest ambitions - although many consider he is a compensation recipient.

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