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For someone who's sacrificed nearly 40 years of his life as a result of a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan maintains a surprisingly positive attitude.

When I met him last month, for what was his debriefing session since being released from prison in May, he was enthusiastic and looking forward to getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the first time since he was arrested in 1986.

That was the year of the violent killing of Diane Sindall in his home town of Birkenhead - an event he said he only knew about 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 condemned to a indefinite period in some of Britain's highest-security category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "Merseyside Killer" and "Lunar Killer".

Adjusting to a Transformed World

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

When he was detained, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, few knew about the internet and Europe was still separated by the Iron Curtain.

He explained watching the collapse 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 operate to realising that "rather than having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Modern Challenges

His incarceration means he has been oblivious to the way so many facets of everyday life have changed - comparable to someone who has been in hibernation since the 1980s.

"Following 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 collect your money - you're thinking, 'Wow, 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 'application'.

He first became familiar with 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.

Mental Effects

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

He remembered how after his liberation, one morning in his flat he went back to his bedroom and sat down on his bed, because he was unconsciously waiting for a prison officer to come and secure him into his cell.

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

"I remained thinking, 'What am I doing?'"

Demanding Answers

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is mixed with a longing for answers about how he ended up being charged with an infamous murder that he didn't commit, and a perplexity about why he still has not had an apology.

"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.

"It hurts because I was absent for them", he said.

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

"My only request, an apology [and to understand] the reason why they've done this to me", he said.

Police Statement

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

The force did refer some of Mr Sullivan's allegations to the police regulatory agency, 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 apologise, 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 serious failure of justice in this case".

Future Prospects

Mr Sullivan told me about his basic aspiration - an ambition that he said he had abandoned expectation of being able to accomplish at some points over his approximately 38 years behind bars.

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

His future may be made easier by government monetary award, paid to wrongly convicted people of miscarriages of justice.

This system is limited at £1.3m, a cap which it is believed his resulting award will get very near.

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

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

Guilty prisoners who confess to their crimes and are released get a housing and some support regarding living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not eligible for that help.

And so he is living a modest life, with his basic aspirations - although many consider he is a future wealthy man.

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