The victim of one of Britain’s worst miscarriages of justice walked free last night having spent 38 years in jail.
Peter Sullivan, 68, is now in line for a £1 million payout after judges quashed his conviction for the murder of 21-year-old florist Diane Sindall in 1986.
Dubbed the Beast of Birkenhead after the brutal killing, Mr Sullivan had long protested his innocence.
But yesterday he said he was ‘not bitter’ or ‘angry’, and will ‘begin repairing what I made from the driftwood that is my life’.
In a statement released through his solicitor Sarah Myatt moments after his conviction was thrown out at the Court of Appeal in London, he added: ‘As God is my witness, it is said the truth shall set you free. It is unfortunate that it does not give a timescale.’
It means Miss Sindall’s killer may still be at large, after recent advances in DNA analysis suggested an unknown male was responsible for the sexually-motivated murder in Merseyside.
The new suspect does not appear on the National DNA Database, nor is he linked to any other unsolved offences, bringing fresh anguish to the loved ones of Miss Sindall.
Detectives with Merseyside Police have already begun a new investigation into the killing.
Yesterday’s extraordinary events follow a special investigation by Stephen Wright in The Mail on Sunday this year, which signalled judges were poised to order his release.
Mr Sullivan, appearing via videolink from Wakefield Prison, initially showed little emotion when Lord Justice Holroyde announced yesterday’s decision.
The judge said: ‘Strong though the circumstantial evidence undoubtedly seemed at the trial, it is now necessary to take into account the new scientific evidence pointing to someone else – the unknown man.
‘If the new evidence had been available in 1986, the evidence as a whole would have been regarded as insufficient. In the light of that evidence it is impossible to regard the appellant’s conviction as safe.’
Mr Sullivan then appeared to wipe his eyes as though the enormity of the situation was finally dawning on him.
Outside court, his sister Kim Smith, flanked by brothers Mark and David Sullivan, said the family would ‘try to build a life around him again’.
She also offered her sympathy to Miss Sindall’s relatives, telling reporters: ‘We lost Peter for 39 years… [he] hasn’t won and neither has the Sindall family. They’ve lost their daughter, they are not going to get her back.’
Mr Sullivan was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 16 years in 1987, but has been denied parole multiple times, largely due to his refusal to admit responsibility for the killing.
He applied to the High Court for permission to appeal against his conviction in 2019, but this was rejected by the Court of Appeal in 2021.
Then, in November last year, the Criminal Cases Review Commission said his case had been referred to the Court of Appeal on the basis of the DNA evidence.
Samples taken at the time of the murder were re-examined and a DNA profile that did not match Mr Sullivan was found.
This crucial evidence was revealed by a method that only came into use in 2015.
Miss Sindall was brutally killed after she left work at a pub in Bebington, Birkenhead, just before midnight on Friday August 1, 1986.
The bride-to-be, who was picking up barmaid shifts to earn extra money for her wedding, was walking to a garage to buy some fuel after her van broke down.
Her lifeless and brutally abused body was discovered 12 hours later in an alley.
At his trial, prosecutors said Mr Sullivan, a petty criminal and fantasist with limited intelligence, had spent the day drinking, and went out armed with a crowbar.
Evidence at the time suggested he had recently borrowed a crowbar from a neighbour and was placed near the scene by witnesses.
But he denied going anywhere near where the crime took place and having the crowbar in his possession, and said he had given different accounts to police because he could not remember his movements.
He said he made confessions about being responsible because he had been assaulted and abused by police officers.
Former labourer Mr Sullivan was driven from prison in a blacked-out van last night a free man.
He is in line for compensation from the Ministry of Justice, capped at £1 million.
Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in jail for a rape he did not commit before his release in 2023, has said £1 million was ‘not enough’ to compensate such severe miscarriages of justice.
The Ministry of Justice said: ‘Peter Sullivan suffered a grave miscarriage of justice, and our thoughts are with him and the family of Diane Sindall.
‘We will carefully consider this judgment, looking at how this could have happened and making sure both Mr Sullivan and Diane’s family get the answers they deserve.’