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

During our encounter last month, for what was his initial media appearance since being released from prison in May, he was upbeat and eagerly anticipating 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 home town of Birkenhead - an event he said he only knew about because someone turned to him in a pub at the time and said, "apparently there's been a murder".

When he was convicted the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was destined to a indefinite period in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be tormented by his tabloid nicknames "The Wirral Predator", "River Mersey Murderer" and "The Wolfman".

Navigating a Transformed World

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

When he was detained, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, no one had heard of the internet and Europe was still partitioned by the Iron Curtain.

He described watching the fall of the Berlin Wall from a public television in prison.

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

Digital Adjustments

His imprisonment means he has been unaware of the way so many elements of everyday life have transformed - almost like someone who has been unconscious 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 pick up your money - you're thinking, 'Wow, what's going on here?'"

He now has a smartphone, after discovering doctor's appointments need to be arranged on something he now knows is called an 'app'.

He first became acquainted with them when he was traveling on a bus shortly after his freedom and saw people twiddling with smartphones. He only realised they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Emotional Impact

Mr Sullivan's 14,000 days in prison have also led to an unavoidable sense of system dependency.

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

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

"I remained thinking, 'Why am I here?'"

Desiring Explanation

But Mr Sullivan's positivity is balanced by a longing for answers about how he was charged with an high-profile murder that he had no part in, and a bewilderment about why he still has not had an expression of regret.

"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 pains me because I was absent for them", he said.

"It's impossible to continue with my life if I can't get an answer off them."

"The sole thing I need, an apology [and to understand] the cause behind they've done this to me", he said.

Law Enforcement Position

Merseyside Police said "minimal advantage to be gained for a review of this matter today" because of "the changes to investigative techniques and developments in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did forward some of Mr Sullivan's claims to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now investigate his claims that officers assaulted him and threatened to link him to other crimes if he refused to admit to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would express regret, the force did not clearly address the question, but as part of a comprehensive declaration it said: "The force regrets that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice in this case".

Moving Forward

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

"My only desire to do now is get on with my own life and move forward as I was before, and enjoy my remaining years now".

His future may be made easier by government financial payment, paid to wrongly convicted people of wrongful convictions.

This scheme is restricted at £1.3m, a maximum which it is believed his eventual payout will get very close to.

But the system is not guaranteed, and it is lengthy.

Andrew Malkinson, whose sentence for a rape he had no involvement in was dismissed in 2023, was only awarded an provisional award earlier this year.

Convicted criminals who confess to their crimes and are released get a accommodation and some help with living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an exonerated person, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is living a basic lifestyle, with his basic aspirations - although many think he is a millionaire in waiting.

His lawyer, Sarah Myatt, said "no amount that you could say that would be sufficient for forfeiting 38 years of your life".