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Considering he who's forfeited nearly 40 years of his life because of a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan strikes a remarkably positive tone.

During our encounter last month, for what was his debriefing session since being freed from prison in May, he was cheerful and looking forward to 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 violent killing of Diane Sindall in his birthplace of Birkenhead - an event he said he had limited information regarding because someone turned to 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 toughest category A prisons where he would be persecuted by his tabloid nicknames "The Beast of Birkenhead", "River Mersey Murderer" and "Lunar Killer".

Adjusting to a Transformed World

Before our interview, he was full of stories about how since his release he has had to acclimate to a fundamentally altered 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 recalled watching the collapse of the Berlin Wall from a shared television in prison.

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

Technological Challenges

His imprisonment means he has been unaware of the way so many elements of everyday life have changed - almost like someone who has been in hibernation since the 1980s.

"Having endured so long in prison and finding out 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, 'Amazing, what's going on here?'"

He now has a smartphone, after finding out doctor's appointments need to be arranged on something he now knows is called an 'mobile program'.

He first became knowledgeable about them when he was riding 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.

Emotional Effects

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

He remembered how after his release, one morning in his flat he walked back to his bedroom and sat down on his bed, because he was automatically waiting for a prison officer to come and lock him back into his cell.

"You must be at your door at a designated moment, otherwise the officers will yell at you", he said.

"I found myself thinking, 'What's happening?'"

Demanding Answers

But Mr Sullivan's hope is tempered by a desire for answers about how he came to be charged with an high-profile murder that he was innocent of, and a perplexity about why he still has not had an apology.

"My entire life vanished", he said.

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

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

Police Response

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

The force did refer some of Mr Sullivan's claims to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now investigate his claims that officers beat him up and intimidated to link him to other crimes if he refused to admit to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would apologise, the force did not clearly address the question, but as part of a comprehensive declaration it said: "The force recognizes that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan explained about his basic aspiration - an ambition that he said he had abandoned expectation of being able to achieve at some points over his almost forty years behind bars.

"My only desire to do now is continue with my own life and progress as I was before, and live my time out now".

His future may be made easier by government monetary award, paid to individuals affected of wrongful convictions.

This scheme is restricted at £1.3m, a maximum which it is estimated his resulting award will get very close to.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose sentence for a rape he was innocent of was dismissed in 2023, was only given an provisional award earlier this year.

Admitted offenders who confess to their crimes and are paroled get a place to live and some support regarding living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, is not eligible for that help.

And so he is surviving a modest life, with his modest ambitions - although many consider he is a millionaire in waiting.

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