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For someone who's lost approximately 40 years of his life due to a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan strikes a remarkably optimistic attitude.

In our conversation last month, for what was his debriefing session since being released from prison in May, he was upbeat and excited about getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the first time since he was arrested in 1986.

That was the year of the brutal homicide 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 extended term in some of Britain's most secure category A prisons where he would be hounded by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "River Mersey Murderer" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Adapting to a Transformed World

Before our interview, he was abundant with tales about how since his exoneration he has had to adapt to a fundamentally altered world.

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

He recalled watching the fall of the Berlin Wall from a public television in prison.

Mr Sullivan explained how trips to the shops now show how "society has evolved" - from trying to figure out how self-checkouts work to realising that "instead of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Modern Challenges

His imprisonment means he has been unaware of the way so many facets of everyday life have changed - comparable to someone who has been unconscious since the 1980s.

"After spending 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 receive your money - you're thinking, 'Amazing, what's going on here?'"

He now has a mobile device, after learning doctor's appointments need to be booked on something he now knows is called an 'app'.

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

Psychological Consequences

Mr Sullivan's 14,000 days in prison have also led to an unavoidable sense of prison conditioning.

He described how after his release, one morning in his flat he returned to his bedroom and positioned himself on his bed, because he was automatically 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 found myself thinking, 'Why am I here?'"

Desiring Closure

But Mr Sullivan's hope is mixed with a yearning for answers about how he ended up being charged with an infamous murder that he was innocent of, 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 pains me because I was absent for them", he said.

"I can't carry on with my life if I can't get an response off them."

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

Law Enforcement Statement

Merseyside Police said "there would be little benefit to be gained for a re-examination 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 accusations to the police regulatory agency, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now investigate his claims that officers beat him up and threatened 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 directly answer the question, but as part of a comprehensive declaration it said: "The force acknowledges that there has been a significant injustice of justice in this case".

Looking Ahead

Mr Sullivan told me about his modest ambition - an ambition that he said he had given up of being able to realise at some points over his nearly four decades behind bars.

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

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

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

But the system is not guaranteed, and it is protracted.

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

Convicted criminals who acknowledge their crimes and are released get a accommodation and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an exonerated person, is not entitled to that help.

And so he is living a simple existence, with his modest ambitions - although many think he is a compensation recipient.

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