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Considering he who's lost approximately 40 years of his life because of a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan maintains a remarkably optimistic tone.

During our encounter last month, for what was his initial media appearance since being liberated from prison in May, he was enthusiastic and eagerly anticipating getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the initial occasion since he was detained in 1986.

That was the year of the sexual attack murder of Diane Sindall in his home town of Birkenhead - an incident 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 sentenced the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was destined to a lifetime in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be persecuted by his tabloid nicknames "Birkenhead's Monster", "The Mersey Ripper" and "Lunar Killer".

Navigating a Digital World

Ahead of our conversation, he was rich with anecdotes about how since his exoneration he has had to acclimate to a fundamentally altered world.

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

He explained watching the demolition of the Berlin Wall from a communal television in prison.

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

Digital Challenges

His confinement means he has been ignorant of the way so many aspects of everyday life have transformed - comparable to someone who has been unconscious 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 receive your money - you're thinking, 'Goodness, what's going on here?'"

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

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

Mental Consequences

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

He recalled how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he returned 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've got to be at your door at a certain time, otherwise the officers will yell at you", he said.

"I was just sitting there thinking, 'Why am I here?'"

Demanding Explanation

But Mr Sullivan's positivity is mixed with a yearning for answers about how he was charged with an infamous murder that he didn't commit, and a confusion 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.

"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 response off them."

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

Police Statement

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

The force did forward some of Mr Sullivan's accusations to the police oversight body, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now investigate his claims that officers physically abused him and warned 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 specifically respond the question, but as part of a comprehensive declaration it said: "The force acknowledges that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

Mr Sullivan shared about his modest ambition - an ambition that he said he had given up of being able to achieve at some points over his approximately 38 years behind bars.

"The sole objective to do now is get on with my own life and progress as I was before, and enjoy my remaining years now".

His future may be made easier by government monetary award, paid to victims of miscarriages of justice.

This system is limited at £1.3m, a maximum which it is thought his resulting award will get very near.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he had no involvement in was overturned in 2023, was only awarded an interim compensation payout earlier this year.

Convicted criminals who admit to their crimes and are released get a housing and some help with living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an exonerated person, is not eligible for that help.

And so he is living a simple existence, with his humble goals - although many consider 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".