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For someone who's sacrificed almost 40 years of his life as a result of a crime he was innocent of, Peter Sullivan strikes a unusually hopeful tone.

When I met him last month, for what was his first interview since being released from prison in May, he was enthusiastic and excited about getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the initial occasion since he was arrested in 1986.

That was the year of the brutal homicide of Diane Sindall in his local community of Birkenhead - an incident he said he was merely aware of because someone approached 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 destined to a lifetime in some of Britain's most secure category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "Merseyside Killer" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Adjusting to a Transformed World

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

When he was taken into custody, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, no one had heard of the internet and Europe was still separated by the Iron Curtain.

He described watching the collapse of the Berlin Wall from a communal 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".

Digital Adjustments

His incarceration means he has been unaware of the way so many aspects of everyday life have transformed - 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 mobile device, after discovering doctor's appointments need to be booked on something he now knows is called an 'mobile program'.

He first became knowledgeable about them when he was sitting on a bus shortly after his freedom and saw people twiddling with smartphones. He only recognized they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Emotional Consequences

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

He remembered how after his release, one morning in his flat he returned to his bedroom and settled on his bed, because he was unconsciously waiting for a prison officer to come and lock him back into his cell.

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

"I was just sitting there thinking, 'What am I doing?'"

Demanding Answers

But Mr Sullivan's positivity is mixed with a longing for answers about how he ended up being charged with an infamous murder that he had no part in, and a perplexity about why he still has not had an apology.

"Everything is gone", he said.

"My liberty was taken, 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 explanation 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 refer some of Mr Sullivan's claims to the police oversight body, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now investigate his claims that officers physically abused him and warned to link him to other crimes if he didn't plead guilty to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would issue an apology, the force did not directly answer the question, but as part of a detailed response it said: "The force acknowledges 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 accomplish at some points over his approximately 38 years behind bars.

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

His future may be made less challenging by government compensation, paid to wrongly convicted people of miscarriages of justice.

This system is restricted at £1.3m, a maximum which it is estimated his final compensation will get very approach.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose conviction for a rape he did not commit was quashed in 2023, was only given an interim compensation payout earlier this year.

Admitted offenders 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 surviving a simple existence, with his basic aspirations - although many believe he is a future wealthy man.

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