Man in jail for 38 years has 'never lost hope'
Merseyside PoliceFor more than three decades, solicitor Sarah Myatt's client had been languishing in jail for a brutal murder.
But a phone call informing her that new DNA evidence had been found was to cast major doubt on whether Peter Sullivan was the guilty man after all.
He was jailed in 1987 for the sex attack and murder of 21-year-old bride-to-be Diane Sindall, who was killed as she walked home in Birkenhead in 1986.
But the discovery of DNA that was not his found at the scene was to pave the way for a criminal cases review that could see Sullivan, now 68, become the victim of the longest-running miscarriage of justice affecting a living prisoner in UK history.
Ms Sindall had run out of petrol while driving home and is understood to have decided to walk to the nearest garage to fill up a jerrycan.
But she was set upon, sexually assaulted and beaten to death in an alley, and left with injuries that Merseyside Police detectives described at the time as the worst they had ever seen.
Sullivan, described as a "quiet loner", made a confession but later retracted it.
He was jailed for life and has always maintained his innocence.
But then in 2021, Sullivan made a second application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which ordered the crime scene samples tests.
Ms Myatt, who works for Yorkshire based legal firm Switalskis, said she was sitting in the office when someone from the CCRC called with staggering news.
"I remember the moment well and I will probably remember it for the rest of my career and beyond because it was so significant," she said.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) indicated on Thursday that it does not dispute the results of DNA testing which found the profile of an unknown male in preserved semen samples from the crime scene.
"I've worked in criminal defence for 20 years and I have actually been involved in working with Peter professionally for 20 years as well... it was one of those cases that's always with you.
"To get a moment like, that I can't compare it to anything else."
At a preliminary hearing in the Court of Appeal on Thursday, a barrister for the CPS asked the court for more time to prepare a response and was given until 4 April, after which a new hearing would be fixed.
In legal terms, nothing has yet changed, and Sullivan will remain a convicted murderer unless judges at the appeal court formally quash his conviction.
But Ms Myatt said the DNA evidence puts Sullivan's case in a strong position.
"I can only say that in Mr Sullivan's case he is very pleased, of course, that we are in the position that we are in now, and we have what we have to put forward to the appeal court.
"There's a process that has to take place and we're very respectful of that."
Ms Sindall's body had been found partially clothed at the entrance to an overgrown alleyway off Borough Road in Birkenhead at 12:30 BST on 2 August 1986.
Her blue Fiat van ran out of petrol after a shift at the Wellington Pub in Bebington.
According to court documents, witnesses reported hearing screams at some point between 00:30 and 02:00, and a passer-by found her van keys around 400 yards from where her body was found at around 02:30.
A post-mortem examination found a catalogue of injuries including a fractured skull, multiple jaw fractures, fractures to cartilage in the throat, loose teeth, severe bite mark injuries and evidence of mutilation.
Her cause of death was identified as bleeding on the brain resulting from multiple blows to the head.
Semen had been left on her body - which nearly 40 years later would become the source of the new DNA evidence.
Sullivan was first identified as a person of interest after witnesses reported seeing a man called 'Pete' in the area of Bidston Hill, around five miles from the murder scene, on 3 August.
A pile of Miss Sindall's clothes were found partially burned.
Other evidence included the fact that he had borrowed a crowbar from a neighbour before the murder, which a pathologist said could have been used to inflict Miss Sindall's injuries.
Although one prosecution expert witness examined the bite marks and concluded Sullivan's teeth did not match, a second expert came to the opposite conclusion.
The first expert then changed his mind and said he had come to believe there was a match.
That bite mark evidence, as well as the police processes around his interviews where he made then retracted confessions, also form part of his new application for leave to appeal.
According to court documents, Sullivan had been told shortly after his trial in 1987 that there were no grounds on which he could appeal.
In 2008, he made an initial application to the CCRC asking for DNA testing to be carried out, but the body said it had refused after receiving expert advice suggesting it was very unlikely any DNA profile could be extracted.
He also applied for leave to appeal directly to the Court of Appeal in 2019.
In that application he challenged evidence used by the prosecution in his trial which claimed a bite mark on Miss Sindall's body matched dental impressions taken from Sullivan.
The veracity of bite mark evidence in criminal cases has been questioned in recent years.
That application was rejected, however, with a judge concluding that the bite mark evidence was not central to his conviction, due to apparent confessions made by Sullivan in his police interviews.
'A weight's been lifted'
The CCRC said, after reviewing his 2021 application, that it found bite mark evidence had been important in Sullivan's conviction.
The body also found evidence that there had been issues with the way Sullivan was interviewed by police. He did not have a lawyer present, despite his "limited intellect".
Despite those setbacks Ms Myatt said Sullivan had "never lost hope".
"He was absolutely over the moon. It's the breakthrough that he'd been waiting for for all this time," she said.
"He's always been really positive anyway. He's a very positive person and he was even more so. It was like a weight's been lifted."
Miss Sindall's family have not commented publicly on the break in Sullivan's case, or on the fact that Merseyside Police is re-investigating the case to try to identify the source of the new DNA profile.
Ms Myatt said Sullivan is aware that they will be heavily affected by the re-opening of the case.
She said: "What I would say, on behalf of Peter and Switalski's as well, is that we are all very mindful and very respectful and very sensitive to the fact that there is a victim in this case, and there is also a victim's family.
"Peter is going through this process but they are still impacted by it, and I just want to make it clear we are sensitive to that."
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