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For someone who's lost almost 40 years of his life as a result of a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan strikes a surprisingly hopeful tone.

In our conversation last month, for what was his debriefing session since being freed from prison in May, he was cheerful and excited about 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 home town of Birkenhead - an event he said he had limited information regarding 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 indefinite period in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "The Mersey Ripper" and "The Wolfman".

Navigating a Modern World

Before our interview, he was rich with anecdotes about how since his exoneration he has had to acclimate to a radically changed world.

When he was detained, 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 fall of the Berlin Wall from a public television in prison.

Mr Sullivan told me how trips to the shops now show how "the world has transformed" - from trying to work out how self-checkouts work to realising that "in place of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Digital Challenges

His imprisonment means he has been unaware of the way so many facets of everyday life have evolved - almost like 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, 'Wow, what's going on here?'"

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

He first became acquainted with them when he was traveling on a bus shortly after his liberation and saw people operating smartphones. He only understood they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Mental Consequences

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

He remembered how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he returned to his bedroom and settled on his bed, because he was subconsciously 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 go off at you", he said.

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

Desiring Closure

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 didn't commit, and a confusion about why he still has not had an expression of regret.

"I've lost everything", he said.

"My liberty was taken, I lost my mother since I've been in prison, I've lost my father.

"The pain is deep because I was absent for them", he said.

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

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

Law Enforcement Statement

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

The force did refer some of Mr Sullivan's accusations to the police regulatory agency, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now examine his claims that officers beat him up and threatened to link him to other crimes if he refused to admit to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would apologise, the force did not clearly address the question, but as part of a detailed response it said: "The force acknowledges that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan explained 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.

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

His prospects may be made less challenging by government financial payment, paid to victims of wrongful convictions.

This system is capped at £1.3m, a limit which it is estimated his eventual payout will get very near.

But the procedure is not automatic, and it is time-consuming.

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

Convicted criminals who acknowledge their crimes and are freed get a housing and some help with living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an innocent man, is not eligible for that help.

And so he is surviving a simple existence, with his basic aspirations - although many think he is a millionaire in waiting.

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