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For someone who's sacrificed approximately 40 years of his life because of a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan maintains a unusually hopeful attitude.

During our encounter last month, for what was his first interview since being freed from prison in May, he was upbeat and eagerly anticipating getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the opening match since he was arrested in 1986.

That was the year of the sexual attack murder of Diane Sindall in his local community of Birkenhead - an incident he said he had limited information regarding because someone turned to him in a pub at the time and said, "allegedly there's been a murder".

When he was found guilty the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was sentenced to a extended term in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "Merseyside Killer" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Adjusting to a Modern World

Prior to our discussion, he was abundant with tales about how since his release 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 divided by the Iron Curtain.

He described watching the demolition of the Berlin Wall from a shared television in prison.

Mr Sullivan explained how trips to the shops now show how "everything's changed" - from trying to understand how self-checkouts operate to realising that "in place of having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Technological Challenges

His confinement means he has been oblivious to the way so many elements of everyday life have changed - 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 pick up your money - you're thinking, 'Wow, what's going on here?'"

He now has a digital phone, after discovering doctor's appointments need to be scheduled on something he now knows is called an 'app'.

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

Mental Consequences

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

He remembered how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he walked 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 designated moment, otherwise the officers will discipline you", he said.

"I remained thinking, 'What's happening?'"

Desiring Explanation

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is balanced by a desire for answers about how he came to be charged with an infamous murder that he had no part in, and a confusion about why he still has not had an expression of regret.

"Everything is gone", he said.

"Freedom disappeared, 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 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 "there would be little benefit to be gained for a review of this matter today" because of "advancements to investigative techniques and progress in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did submit some of Mr Sullivan's claims to the police regulatory agency, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now examine his claims that officers physically abused him and intimidated to link him to other crimes if he failed to confess 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 recognizes that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan shared about his modest ambition - an ambition that he said he had lost hope of being able to achieve at some points over his nearly four decades behind bars.

"All I want to do now is continue with my own life and move forward as I was before, and enjoy my remaining years now".

His prospects may be made less challenging by government monetary award, paid to victims of judicial errors.

This scheme is limited at £1.3m, a cap which it is estimated his final compensation will get very near.

But the process is not immediate, and it is protracted.

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

Convicted criminals who admit to their crimes and are freed get a accommodation and some support regarding living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not entitled to that help.

And so he is surviving a basic lifestyle, with his humble goals - although many believe he is a future wealthy man.

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