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For someone who's sacrificed almost 40 years of his life due to a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan strikes a unusually optimistic tone.

When I met him last month, for what was his debriefing session since being freed from prison in May, he was upbeat and excited about getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the initial occasion since he was taken into custody in 1986.

That was the year of the sexual attack murder of Diane Sindall in his birthplace of Birkenhead - an occurrence he said he had limited information regarding because someone spoke to him in a pub at the time and said, "apparently there's been a murder".

When he was found guilty the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was destined to a lifetime in some of Britain's most secure category A prisons where he would be hounded by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "River Mersey Murderer" and "The Wolfman".

Navigating a Transformed World

Before our interview, he was abundant with tales about how since his freedom he has had to adapt to a radically changed 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 recalled watching the collapse of the Berlin Wall from a public television in prison.

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

Modern Challenges

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

"After spending 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 receive 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 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 liberation and saw people using smartphones. He only recognized they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Emotional Consequences

Mr Sullivan's 14,000 days in confinement have also led to an unavoidable sense of institutionalisation.

He recalled how after his liberation, 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 lock him back into his cell.

"You've got to be at your door at a designated moment, otherwise the officers will discipline you", he said.

"I found myself thinking, 'What am I doing?'"

Demanding Explanation

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is mixed with a desire for answers about how he ended up being charged with an infamous murder that he didn't commit, 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.

"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 explanation off them."

"My only request, an apology [and to understand] the explanation for they've done this to me", he said.

Authorities Position

Merseyside Police said "there would be little benefit to be gained for a re-examination of this matter today" because of "advancements to investigative techniques and progress 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 examine his claims that officers assaulted him and threatened 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 comprehensive declaration it said: "The force recognizes that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice in this case".

Looking Ahead

Mr Sullivan shared about his modest ambition - an ambition that he said he had lost hope of being able to achieve at some points over his nearly four decades behind bars.

"All I want to do now is get on with my own life and carry on as I was before, and live my time out now".

His life ahead may be made less challenging by government financial payment, paid to individuals affected of judicial errors.

This program is limited at £1.3m, a maximum which it is believed his final compensation will get very approach.

But the process 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 provisional award earlier this year.

Guilty prisoners who confess to their crimes and are paroled get a accommodation and some assistance for living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an wrongly convicted individual, 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 "no amount that you could say that would be enough for sacrificing 38 years of your life".