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For someone who's forfeited almost 40 years of his life due to a crime he was innocent of, Peter Sullivan projects a remarkably hopeful attitude.

In our conversation last month, for what was his initial media appearance since being liberated from prison in May, he was cheerful and eagerly anticipating getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the first time 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 incident he said he was merely aware of because someone turned to him in a pub at the time and said, "allegedly there's been a murder".

When he was sentenced the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was sentenced to a indefinite period in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Beast of Birkenhead", "The Mersey Ripper" and "The Wolfman".

Adapting to a Digital World

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

When he was taken into custody, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, few knew about the internet and Europe was still partitioned by the Iron Curtain.

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

Mr Sullivan described how trips to the shops now show how "the world has transformed" - from trying to figure out how self-checkouts operate to realising that "rather than having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Technological Challenges

His confinement means he has been unaware of the way so many elements of everyday life have changed - almost like someone who has been asleep 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 collect 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 booked on something he now knows is called an 'app'.

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

Psychological Consequences

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

He recalled how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he went back to his bedroom and sat down on his bed, because he was automatically waiting for a prison officer to come and confine him into his cell.

"You must be at your door at a specific hour, otherwise the officers will go off at you", he said.

"I found myself thinking, 'Why am I here?'"

Demanding Answers

But Mr Sullivan's hope is tempered by a yearning for answers about how he ended up being charged with an high-profile 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.

"Freedom disappeared, I lost my mother since I've been in prison, I've lost my father.

"It pains me 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 explanation for they've done this to me", he said.

Authorities Position

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

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

When asked if it would issue an apology, the force did not clearly address 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 approximately 38 years behind bars.

"All I want to do now is get on with my own life and carry on as I was before, and enjoy my remaining years now".

His future may be made less challenging by government financial payment, paid to victims of judicial errors.

This system is restricted at £1.3m, a limit which it is believed his final compensation will get very near.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he did not commit was overturned in 2023, was only awarded an provisional award earlier this year.

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

And so he is surviving a basic lifestyle, with his humble goals - although many believe he is a compensation recipient.

His lawyer, Sarah Myatt, said "there's not a figure that you could say that would be sufficient for losing 38 years of your life".