Peter Sullivan had his conviction for Diane Sindall’s heinous killing quashed after spending 38 years behind bars. Merseyside Police is now screening and eliminating 260 men from the investigation so far
After serving 38 years in prison, Peter Sullivan’s conviction for the murder of Diane Sindall was quashed by the Court of Appeal on Tuesday. The monumental moment confirmed his case as the longest-running miscarriage of justice in British history, and Sullivan, 68, who attended the hearing via video link from HMP Wakefield, appeared to weep and covered his face as the ruling was handed down.
In a statement read by his lawyer, Sullivan said he is not “angry” or “bitter” about the miscarriage of justice, which saw him spend nearly 40 years of his life behind bars, and he said that it “does not detract or minimise that all of this happened off the back of a heinous and most terrible loss of life.”
The murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in August 1986, was said by investigating police to be one of the “worst they had ever seen” – with the florist and bartender subjected to a “frenzied” and fatal attack. The convicted man had long protested his innocence and tried twice previously to overturn his conviction, with no success – but it was primarily new DNA evidence from the scene that does not match his profile that tipped the scale in his favour during his appeal.
Now, there are many unanswered questions left about what happened to Diane – who her mother called “vivacious” and “bubbly” after her murder – and who was responsible, with her loved ones having to come to terms with the idea as Sullivan is released from custody, that no one has ever been brought to justice for this barbaric crime.
Diane had been working a late shift at the Wellington pub in Babington – she had set up her own floristry business but was working there for some extra cash. She left the pub at 11.45 and started making her way home, but her blue Fiat van ran out of fuel and she stopped on Borough Road and began walking to a nearby all-night petrol station.
Between midnight and 12.20 am, she was even spotted walking up the busy road by a few witnesses, but she never made it home, Merseyside police said.
The following morning, on 2 August 1986, her brutalised body was found in an alleyway off the busy road. She had been sexually assaulted and viciously attacked, with the bitemarks found on her body earning her murderer the nicknames of ‘Wolfman’ and the ‘Beast of Birkenhead’.
In the initial trial, these bitemarks were said to match Sullivan’s but this has since been contested. Some of her half-burned belongings were found on Bidston Hill, with witnesses claiming to have seen a man running away from a fire there on August 3.
The attack was so horrific that it is burned into the memories of local women – with one writer who was a 13-year-old school pupil nearby at the time describing the terror her murder inspired in them. “Her battered corpse had been found the following morning by a woman walking her dog in a stone-walled alleyway adjacent to a busy main road. Her injuries were catastrophic. She had been beaten with a crowbar, her clothes ripped off and, to our horror, her nipples had been bitten off,” Helena Anne wrote.
She explained that the monstrous nicknames ascribed to the murderer made it feel as if “there was a Bogeyman out there, a Predator. He was dubbed ‘The Wolfman’ almost like he was a creature from the underworld that had escaped for a short period, and after the kill had gone back to his own world.”
However, the reality of this unsolved heinous crime is far more terrifying: it was not a mythical monster who committed it, but a man who has managed to walk amongst society unnoticed for forty years. Diane’s mother described her as “such a vivacious, bubbly, happy-go-lucky girl, looking forward to getting married to her boyfriend. She was really a good family girl and everyone liked her,” shortly after the murder.
The 21-year-old had her whole life ahead of her and was due to be married to her partner David, with whom she had been in a relationship since she was 16 years old. Whilst Sullivan now finds himself a free man, the overturning of his conviction was a painful moment for Diane’s family.
Detective Chief Superintendent Karen Jaundrill of Merseyside police said: “Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Diane Sindall who continue to mourn her loss and will have to endure the implications of this new development so many years after her murder. We are committed to doing everything within our power to find whom the DNA, which was left at the scene, belongs to.
“Unfortunately, there is no match for the DNA identified on the national DNA database.” Sullivan’s appeal was granted by the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) after new DNA evidence from the crime was found that did not match Sullivan’s profile, alongside “evidence to suggest there were possible breaches” of police procedure, including denying Peter legal representation in initial interviews and an “appropriate adult” which it is reported he needed as a vulnerable person.
Duncan Atkinson KC, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said during the hearing: “Had this DNA evidence been available at the time a decision was taken to prosecute, it is difficult to see how a decision to prosecute could have been made.”
Whilst the CCRC decision to refer Sullivan’s case to the Court of Appeal was made in 2024, Merseyside Police reopened their investigation into Diane’s murder back in 2023. “At the time of Diane’s murder DNA testing was very much in its infancy and this vital evidence was not available to the original investigation team,” they said in a statement, adding that they have tested Diane’s family members and her boyfriend and the new DNA does not match any of these profiles either.
DCS Jaundrill explained that Merseyside police are working with the National Crime Agency and are conducting “extensive and painstaking inquiries” to find out who the DNA from the scene belongs to, including screening and eliminating 260 men from the investigation so far.
“We believe there are people who have information, or suspicions, about the murder of Diane in 1986 and I would appeal to those people to come forward, as the information they have could be key to finding who the DNA belongs to,” Jaundrill said.
“You may have been in the area of Borough Road on the night of the murder and may have seen someone acting suspiciously. If you were in the area, or had concerns about an individual at the time, let us know so our team can trace and request a DNA sample from the person you suspect, or a relative of theirs if they have perhaps passed away, or they have emigrated to another country.”
Lord Justice Holroyde, who handed down the ruling quashing Sullivan’s conviction, said: “The brutal attack which ended Miss Sindall’s young life also blighted the lives of her fiancee, her family and all those who loved her. We offer our condolences to the bereaved.”
Through his lawyer, Sullivan said in a statement: “I lost my liberty four decades ago over a crime I did not commit. We now know how very different the times we live in are from scientific advances, legal practice, and methods of investigation and questioning by the police.
“What happened to me was very wrong but it does not detract or minimise that all of this happened off the back of a heinous and most terrible loss of life. I did not commit murder or unlawfully take the life of any person throughout the span of my own.
“As God is my witness, it is said the truth shall take you free. It is unfortunate that it does not give a timescale as we advance towards resolving the wrongs done to me, I am not angry, I am not bitter.”
Anyone with information should contact Merseyside Police social media desk via X @MerPolCC or on Facebook ‘Merseyside Police Contact Centre’. You can also report information via website: https://www.merseyside.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/ or call 101 quoting incident reference 23000584997.
Alternatively, contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, or via their website here: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/forms/give-information-anonymously In an emergency always call 999.
If you have any information, you can visit a dedicated web page to submit information or footage which can help in the investigation of Diane’s murder: https://mipp.police.uk/operation/05MP23M57-PO1
If you’ve been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.thesurvivorstrust.org or www.rapecrisis.org.uk or by calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999