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For someone who's forfeited approximately 40 years of his life due to a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan projects a unusually hopeful tone.

In our conversation last month, for what was his debriefing session since being released from prison in May, he was enthusiastic and eagerly anticipating getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the opening match since he was detained in 1986.

That was the year of the sexual attack murder of Diane Sindall in his local community 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 convicted the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was sentenced to a indefinite period in some of Britain's most secure category A prisons where he would be persecuted by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "River Mersey Murderer" and "Lunar Killer".

Adapting to a Modern World

Before our interview, he was abundant with tales about how since his freedom he has had to acclimate to a completely different world.

When he was taken into custody, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, the concept of the internet and Europe was still divided by the Iron Curtain.

He explained watching the collapse 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".

Modern Surprises

His confinement means he has been unaware of the way so many elements of everyday life have changed - similar to someone who has been asleep since the 1980s.

"Having endured 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 pick up your money - you're thinking, 'Goodness, 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 acquainted with them when he was sitting on a bus shortly after his release and saw people twiddling with smartphones. He only realised they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Emotional Effects

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

He recalled how after his liberation, one morning in his flat he went back to his bedroom and positioned himself on his bed, because he was subconsciously waiting for a prison officer to come and secure him into his cell.

"It's required to be at your door at a specific hour, otherwise the officers will yell at you", he said.

"I remained thinking, 'Why am I here?'"

Demanding Closure

But Mr Sullivan's hope is tempered by a longing for answers about how he was charged with an high-profile murder that he didn't commit, and a perplexity about why he still has not had an admission of error.

"My entire life vanished", 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 can't carry on 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.

Authorities Position

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

The force did forward some of Mr Sullivan's claims 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 didn't plead guilty to Diane Sindall's murder.

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

Future Prospects

Mr Sullivan shared 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.

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

His prospects may be made easier by government compensation, paid to wrongly convicted people of wrongful convictions.

This scheme is restricted at £1.3m, a cap which it is believed his eventual payout will get very close to.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he was innocent of was quashed in 2023, was only awarded an interim compensation payout earlier this year.

Admitted offenders who admit to their crimes and are released get a place to live and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is existing a basic lifestyle, with his modest ambitions - although many believe he is a future wealthy man.

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