Peter Sullivan has been freed after spending more than 38 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, in what is believed to be Britain's biggest miscarriage of justice.
Sullivan, now 68, was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1986 murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Birkenhead.
The case sparked the biggest manhunt Merseyside had ever seen.
Sullivan - dubbed the Beast of Birkenhead - and his defence team had long insisted police had got the wrong man.
Peter Sullivan has been freed after spending more than 38 years in prison for a murder he did not commitPANew DNA evidence has finally proven his innocence, revealing that someone else committed the horrific crime that shocked the nation.
The real killer remains unidentified nearly four decades later.
Sindall was well-known in her hometown of Seacombe in Wirral, where her family ran a popular floristry business.
She could often be seen driving her blue van around, delivering flowers. In 1986, she was saving money for her wedding planned for the following year.
To help with this, she worked behind the bar at the Wellington pub in Bebington. Sindall was working at the Wellington on August 1, 1986 - the last night she was seen alive.
She left work around 23.45pm to drive home. Her van ran out of petrol in Birkenhead, forcing her to walk along the busy and well-lit Borough Road.
The sequence of events that led to Sindall's death was later reconstructed by BBC's Crimewatch.
A taxi driver reported seeing a man and woman arguing on Borough Road around 12.10am.
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Peter Sullivan, now 68, was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1986 murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Birkenhead
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"The fellow put his hand out towards the girl. They appeared to know each other but they were definitely arguing," he told Crimewatch.
People reported hearing screams between 12.30am and 2am.
Her half-naked body was discovered in an alleyway off Borough Road by a dog walker the next morning.
She had suffered horrific injuries including a fractured skull, facial lacerations, mutilated breasts and lacerated genitals.
A pathologist later testified her injuries were "the very worst" he had ever seen on a body "outside of a road traffic accident".
The attack caused widespread fear across Merseyside, particularly among women.
"Girls were afraid to be on the streets alone," said former Liverpool Echo journalist John Thompson, who covered the case.
Peter Sullivan was found guilty of the 1986 murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Bebington, Merseyside, in 1987
"Fathers, boyfriends, brothers and husbands would pick women up from work and tell them not to leave the premises until they were right outside the door."
He added there was "real terror" because Sindall's murder was "different - it was horrific".
The crime led to the area's first Reclaim the Night march across the River Mersey.
RASA Merseyside, a charity supporting victims of rape and sexual assault, was founded in the aftermath of Sindall's death.
"It was the sheer normality of it that was so scary, because any of us could have just run out of petrol and been walking along the road," said Josephine Wood from the charity.
Merseyside Police spoke to 3,000 people during their investigation.
At one point, detectives considered interviewing every man in Birkenhead.
Sullivan was arrested on September 23 after giving officers several "completely different" accounts of his movements.
The next day, he broke down in tears and "confessed" to the murder. He had been denied access to legal advice, which was withheld as it would have caused a "hindrance to the enquiry".
Sindall, a 21-year-old bride-to-be and florist from the Wirral, had run out of petrol while driving homeMerseyside PoliceWhen finally given access to a solicitor, Sullivan retracted his confessions.
His trial heard about these confessions and claims from dental experts that bite marks on Sindall's body matched Sullivan's teeth.
After his conviction, Sullivan was dubbed "the Beast of Birkenhead" and "the Mersey Ripper" by newspapers.
New forensic testing last year revealed a DNA profile from a semen sample at the scene that did not match Sullivan.
However, investigators have not been able to identify the person it does match.
In February, Merseyside Police reopened the investigation into Sindall's murder.
They sent letters to people identified in 1986 asking for voluntary DNA samples to eliminate them from enquiries.
Psychologist Dr Harry Wood highlighted Sullivan's "limited intellectual capacity" and "suggestibility" which should have raised concerns about his confessions.
Professor Iain Pretty also criticised the bite mark evidence presented at trial.
In Birkenhead, fresh flowers and notes are still left at a small black granite memorial to Sindall near the attack site.
