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

In our conversation last month, for what was his debriefing session since being liberated from prison in May, he was cheerful and eagerly anticipating 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 brutal homicide of Diane Sindall in his local community of Birkenhead - an occurrence he said he only knew about because someone spoke to him in a pub at the time and said, "apparently there's been a murder".

When he was sentenced the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was condemned 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", "Merseyside Killer" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Navigating a Digital World

Prior to our discussion, he was full of stories about how since his exoneration he has had to acclimate to a fundamentally altered world.

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

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

Mr Sullivan described how trips to the shops now show how "society has evolved" - 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".

Digital Adjustments

His incarceration means he has been unaware of the way so many facets of everyday life have evolved - comparable to someone who has been asleep since the 1980s.

"Following 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 collect your money - you're thinking, 'Wow, what's going on here?'"

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

He first became acquainted with them when he was riding on a bus shortly after his release and saw people operating 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 system dependency.

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

"It's required to be at your door at a designated moment, otherwise the officers will go off at you", he said.

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

Demanding Explanation

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is balanced by a longing for answers about how he ended up being charged with an high-profile murder that he had no part in, and a confusion about why he still has not had an apology.

"Everything is gone", 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 couldn't be present for them", he said.

"I cannot proceed 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.

Authorities 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 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 threatened to link him to other crimes if he didn't plead guilty 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 regrets that there has been a serious failure of justice in this case".

Looking Ahead

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

"All I want to do now is proceed with my own life and move forward as I was before, and live my time out now".

His future may be made more manageable by government financial payment, paid to individuals affected of miscarriages of justice.

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

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose sentence for a rape he did not commit was overturned in 2023, was only given an interim compensation payout earlier this year.

Admitted offenders who admit to their crimes and are freed get a housing and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an innocent man, is not entitled to that help.

And so he is living a modest life, with his modest ambitions - although many consider he is a compensation recipient.

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