Peter Sullivan, who has spent 38 years in prison for the murder of Diane Sindall in 1986, has had his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal.
New DNA evidence is “sufficient fundamentally to cast doubt on the safety of the conviction” of Sullivan, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told the Court of Appeal.
Sullivan was found guilty of the 1986 murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Bebington, Merseyside, in 1987, but has remained in prison despite being sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years.
Now aged 68, he has served 38 years in prison and has previously tried to overturn his conviction twice. He has always maintained his innocence.
THE STORY BEHIND PETER SULLIVAN: Who is the man dubbed the 'Beast of Birkenhead' and what happened to Diane Sindall?
Peter Sullivan has been freed after spending more than 38 years in prison for a murder he did not commitPAHe has raised concerns over analysis of bite marks and the conduct of police interviews over the years.
Sullivan has been freed today after new DNA evidence showed he did not commit the attack. He called the wrongful conviction“very wrong” but said he was “not angry, I’m not bitter”.
Duncan Atkinson KC, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, told the court that the breakthrough is "sufficient fundamentally to cast doubt on the safety of the conviction".
Sullivan, who was 29 at the time and described as a loner, initially denied the attack but later signed a confession.
It is believed to be the longest-running miscarriage of justice affecting a living prisoner in UK history.
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Sullivan was found guilty of the 1986 murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Bebington, Merseyside, in 1987
The memorial stone for Diane Sindall on Borough Road in Birkenhead, Wirral
PA
He first tried to challenge his conviction in 2008, with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) declining to refer the case to the Court of Appeal, before he lost his own appeal bid in 2019.
Sullivan again asked the CCRC to refer his case in 2021, and the commission found that DNA samples taken from the scene did not match Sullivan.
At a hearing today, lawyers for Sullivan told the Court of Appeal in London that the new evidence showed that Sindall’s killer “was not the defendant”.
Barristers for the CPS told the court that there was “no credible basis on which the appeal can be opposed” related to the DNA evidence, with Lord Justice Holroyde, Justice Goss and Justice Bryan stating they had “no doubt that it is both necessary and expedient in the interests of justice” to accept the new DNA evidence.
Holroyde said: “In the light of that evidence, it is impossible to regard the appellant’s conviction as safe.”
Sindall, a 21-year-old bride-to-be and florist from the Wirral, had run out of petrol while driving home
Merseyside Police
Sullivan was found guilty of the 1986 murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Bebington, Merseyside, in 1987
"He has always been trying and working towards a breakthrough. That DNA evidence was that moment for him," said his solicitor Sarah Myatt.
"When he was told about the new evidence, he was ecstatic."
Sindall, a 21-year-old bride-to-be and florist from the Wirral, had run out of petrol while driving home. She is understood to have then decided to walk to the nearest garage.
She was then set upon, sexually assaulted and beaten to death in an alley. Sindall was left with injuries that Merseyside Police detectives described at the time as the worst they had ever seen.
The force have confirmed detectives are now "carrying out an extensive investigation in a bid to identify who the new DNA profile belongs to, as to date there is no match on the national DNA database".
