Peter Sullivan has had his conviction for the murder of Diane Sindall quashed. He is not the Beast of Birkenhead. He is an innocent man who got ensnared in a malfunctioning system that then took 38 years to admit its mistake.
He was wrongly convicted in 1987 for the brutal attack on the part-time pub worker. The 21-year-old was beaten to death and sexually assaulted as she walked home after a shift in Bebington, Merseyside.
Sullivan is now 68 and has lost the best years of his life. Remarkably, in a statement read by his lawyer after his conviction was overturned he said he was “not angry, not bitter”. He said he had experienced horrors but would not dwell on them: “I’ve got to make the most of what is left of the existence I am granted in this world.”
