'Beast of Birkenhead' has murder conviction quashed after 38 years in jail - in UK's longest miscarriage of justice
13 May 2025, 13:08 | Updated: 14 May 2025, 10:12
A man jailed for murder nearly 40 years ago has had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal.
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New DNA evidence was found to be “sufficient fundamentally to cast doubt on the safety of the conviction”, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has told the Court of Appeal.
As the decision was given, Peter Sullivan, 68, who attended his hearing via videolink from HMP Wakefield, held his hand to his mouth and appeared tearful.
Members of the public embraced and one woman tearfully said “we’ve done it” as Mr Justice Holroyde announced the court’s conclusion.
It marked the third time he appealed against his 1987 conviction for the murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Bebington, Merseyside, in 1986 - and 17 years after his first attempt to overturn it.
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He has remained in prison despite being sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years.
Ms Sindall had been returning home from work when she was beaten to death and sexually assaulted, with her body left partially clothed and mutilated.
The part-time florist and barmaid had finished a shift at the pub when she was brutally raped and murdered.
She was engaged to be married, and was making her way to a petrol station after her van had broken down when she was approached by her attacker.
That night, Mr Sullivanan, an unemployed labourer from Birkenhead, had also been at a local pub and was said to be drinking heavily.
Mr Sullivan, who has been described as a “quiet loner”, was arrested and repeatedly questioned without a lawyer present. He initially made a confession but later retracted it.
Since then he has maintained his innocence. Now, new tests ordered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) there was none of his DNA on samples preserved at the time.
When he was told about the new evidence, he was "ecstatic," his solicitor Sarah Myatt said.
He had been dubbed the "Beast of Birkenhead” or the “wolfman” due to bite marks being discovered on Ms Sindall's corpse.
Jason Pitter KC told the court that semen had been left on Ms Sindall’s body in what was “a grotesque offence”.
At the time of the murder, and in the years since when Mr Sullivan has tried to clear his name, there was a lack of scientific capability to properly analyse the sample and get a DNA profile.
A sample was eventually analysed in 2024, and it was later found that the DNA profile did not match Mr Sullivan’s.
Mr Pitter said had there was a risk that the sample itself could have been destroyed completely if analysis was carried out any earlier than last year.
“The prosecution case is that it was one person. It was one person who carried out a sexual assault on the victim.
“The evidence here is now that one person was not the defendant,” Mr Pitter said.
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", Merseyside Police have confirmed.
Investigators are also contacting people identified in the original probe to request voluntary DNA samples.
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