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Considering he who's forfeited approximately 40 years of his life due to a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan maintains a unusually optimistic outlook.

In our conversation last month, for what was his first interview since being liberated from prison in May, he was cheerful and eagerly anticipating getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the opening match since he was taken into custody in 1986.

That was the year of the sexual attack murder of Diane Sindall in his home town of Birkenhead - an event he said he had limited information regarding because someone spoke to him in a pub at the time and said, "reportedly there's been a murder".

When he was convicted the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was destined to a indefinite period in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be hounded by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "The Mersey Ripper" and "The Wolfman".

Navigating a Digital World

Ahead of our conversation, he was abundant with tales about how since his exoneration he has had to adapt to a radically changed world.

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

He recalled watching the fall of the Berlin Wall from a communal 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".

Digital Surprises

His confinement means he has been unaware of 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 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 mobile device, after learning doctor's appointments need to be arranged on something he now knows is called an 'application'.

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

Emotional Effects

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

He described how after his release, one morning in his flat he walked back to his bedroom and positioned himself on his bed, because he was subconsciously waiting for a prison officer to come and confine him 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 remained thinking, 'What's happening?'"

Desiring Closure

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is tempered by a longing for answers about how he ended up being charged with an notorious murder that he didn't commit, and a bewilderment 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.

"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."

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

Law Enforcement Statement

Merseyside Police said "minimal advantage to be gained for a reassessment of this matter today" because of "developments to investigative techniques and improvements in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did forward some of Mr Sullivan's allegations to the police oversight body, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now examine 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 express regret, the force did not clearly address the question, but as part of a lengthy statement it said: "The force regrets that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Future Prospects

Mr Sullivan shared about his simple goal - an ambition that he said he had given up of being able to accomplish at some points over his almost forty years behind bars.

"My only desire to do now is get on with my own life and move forward as I was before, and live my time out now".

His future may be made easier by government financial payment, paid to wrongly convicted people of judicial errors.

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

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose sentence for a rape he had no involvement in was quashed in 2023, was only granted an temporary payment earlier this year.

Admitted offenders who acknowledge their crimes and are released get a place to live and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an innocent man, is not eligible for that help.

And so he is living a basic lifestyle, with his basic aspirations - although many believe he is a future wealthy man.

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