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For someone who's lost almost 40 years of his life due to a crime he had no involvement in, Peter Sullivan maintains a remarkably optimistic tone.

In our conversation last month, for what was his first interview since being freed from prison in May, he was upbeat and excited about 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 brutal homicide of Diane Sindall in his home town of Birkenhead - an incident he said he had limited information regarding because someone turned 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 sentenced to a lifetime in some of Britain's highest-security category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Beast of Birkenhead", "The Mersey Ripper" and "Nocturnal Predator".

Adjusting to a Modern World

Before our interview, he was rich with anecdotes about how since his freedom he has had to adapt to a radically changed world.

When he was arrested, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, few knew about the internet and Europe was still separated by the Iron Curtain.

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

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

Digital Challenges

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

"After spending 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, 'Amazing, what's going on here?'"

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

He first became acquainted with them when he was riding on a bus shortly after his release and saw people twiddling with smartphones. He only understood 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 unavoidable sense of prison conditioning.

He remembered how after his freedom, one morning in his flat he returned to his bedroom and positioned himself on his bed, because he was automatically 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 yell at you", he said.

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

Seeking Closure

But Mr Sullivan's positivity is balanced by a yearning for answers about how he ended up being charged with an high-profile murder that he didn't commit, and a bewilderment 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 couldn't be present for them", he said.

"I cannot proceed with my life if I can't get an explanation off them."

"That's all I want, an apology [and to understand] the reason why they've done this to me", he said.

Police Response

Merseyside Police said "there would be little benefit to be gained for a reassessment of this matter today" because of "advancements to investigative techniques and improvements in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did forward some of Mr Sullivan's allegations to the police oversight body, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now look at 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 apologise, the force did not specifically respond the question, but as part of a detailed response it said: "The force acknowledges that there has been a significant injustice of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

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

"All I want to do now is proceed 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 miscarriages of justice.

This system is restricted at £1.3m, a cap which it is thought his resulting award will get very approach.

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

Andrew Malkinson, whose guilty verdict for a rape he was innocent of was overturned in 2023, was only given an interim compensation payout earlier this year.

Admitted offenders who acknowledge their crimes and are released get a housing and some support regarding living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an exonerated person, is not entitled to that help.

And so he is existing a modest life, with his humble goals - although many think he is a millionaire in waiting.

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