A British man who served 38 years in prison for murder had destroyed his conviction on Tuesday after Forensic proof of the crime scene had been tested and found not to match his DNA.
The man, Peter Sullivan, 68, is considered the victim of the longest judicial miscarriage of the country in which a living prisoner is involved. The opinion follows the rise of various other unlawful beliefs in recent years, casts a shadow on the reputation of the British criminal justice system and raises serious questions about the credibility of the professional process.
Mr. Sullivan was imprisoned after the murder in August 1986 of Diane Sindall, 21, who suffered an amazing sexual attack in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, while she went home from a pub where she also worked.
After DNA evidence was presented in the case, the Court of Appeal announced the conviction of Mr Sullivan.
“In the light of that evidence, it is impossible to consider the appellant’s conviction as safe,” said Timothy Holroyde, one of the three judges who chair the hearing. “We destroy the conviction,” he added, and ordered that Mr. Sullivan would be released out of detention.
Appeared via a video link from prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Mr. Sullivan broke into tears and held his hand over his mouth while he was told that he would be liberated, the BBC reported.
In a statement from his lawyer, Sarah Myatt, on his behalf after the ruling, Mr. Sullivan said: “What happened to me was very wrong, but it does not detract or minimized this all happened outside the back of a horrible and most terrible loss of life.” He added: “I am not angry; I am not bitter. I am just curious about my loved ones and family, because I have to get the best out of what is left of the existence I have awarded in this world.”
Mr. Sullivan’s unlawful prison sentence will probably intensify the debate on the reliability of the British Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is responsible for investigating possible judicial miscarriages.
In 2023, Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, was released after years of protest against his innocence.
James Burley, who led the investigation into Mr Malkinson’s case through a charity, said on Tuesday in a statement: “The exemption from Peter Sullivan today after almost four decades of unlawful prison sentence provides further evidence that our current professional system cannot be trusted to quickly identify and put justice of justice.”
Mrs. Sindall, who was a florist and was engaged to get married, was attacked while walking to a gas station in Bebington, Merseyside, after her van broke just after midnight.
Twelve hours later Mrs. Sindall was discovered by a member of the audience in an alley with extensive injuries. The cause of death was determined as a brain haemorrhage after several strokes.
The hunt for her murderer received national attention and because of the brutality of the attack, tabloid newspapers referred to Mr Sullivan after his conviction such as the ‘Beast of Birkenhead’.
Mr. Sullivan applied in 2008 to judge his case by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, but his application was rejected. He applied for permission in 2019 to appeal, but that too was rejected.
After another application had been submitted in 2021, the committee decided that due to technological progress it was worth testing the Sperma samples that were kept from the crime scene in 1986. They did not match the DNA of Mr. Sullivan.
The police, who has since reopened their investigation into the case, says that more than 260 other men have since been screened and eliminated from their investigation.
“Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Diane Sindall who continue to mourn her loss and have to endure the implications of this new development so many years after her murder,” said Detective Head Inspector Karen Jaunddrill of the MerseSide police in one rack On Tuesday. “We are committed to do everything in our power to find from whom the DNA, which was left on the spot, belongs.”
After his arrest, Mr Sullivan was initially denied the legal representation and the murder known before he moved it. He has long protested against his innocence, a factor that makes it more difficult to get conditional release.
In one rackSaid the Criminal Cases Review Commission that “the new DNA recovery material that led to the conviction of Mr Sullivan that was destroyed could not be available when we first considered his case”, which, according to her decision, justified not to send this case back to the courts in 2008.
It added: “However, we regret that we cannot identify the conviction of Mr Sullivan as a possible judicial miscarriage in our first assessment.”
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