London
AP
–
The man who spent nearly 40 years in a British prison for the murder of a barmaid said he was not suffering Tuesday after his murder conviction was overturned and released after being exonerated by DNA evidence.
Peter Sullivan put his hand on his mouth and wept as the London Court of Appeals cancelled his beliefs and ordered his freedom after years of fighting to prove his innocence.
After seeing the video hearing from Wakefield Prison in northern England, Sullivan said through his lawyer that he was not resenting and was eager to meet his loved one.
“It is said that the truth will set you free because God is my witness,” Attorney Sarah Myat read from a statement outside the court. “Unfortunately, it’s a shame that we don’t give you a timescale to move forward to resolve any mistakes I made. I’m not mad, I’m not bitter.”
He was the victim of the longest service of an unlawful conviction in the UK, Matt said.
Sullivan, 68, was convicted in 1987 of killing Diane Cindall in Bevington, near Liverpool, northwest England. He was behind the bar for 38 years.
Sindal, 21, a florist who worked in the marriage, had returned from part-time work at the pub on a Friday night in August 1986 when the van ran out of fuel, police said. She was the last time she saw her walking down the road after midnight.
Her body was found in an alley about 12 hours later. She was sexually assaulted and severely beaten.
The sex fluids found in Sindall’s body could not be scientifically analyzed until recently. The 2024 test revealed that it wasn’t Sullivan, lawyer Jason Pitter said.
“The prosecutor’s case is that it was one person. It was one person who sexually assaulted the victim,” Pitter said. “The evidence here is that no one was the accused.”
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson did not challenge the appeal and said it was unthinkable that Sullivan would have been charged if DNA evidence was available at the time of the investigation.
Merseyside police said they are “committed to doing everything” to resume investigations and find the killer as the appeal is ongoing.
The Criminal Case Review Board, which is investigating the possibility of an illegal conviction, refused to refer Sullivan’s case to the Court of Appeal in 2008.
A spokesman for the committee said he made the right decision based on the evidence at the time, but regretted not identifying a potential miscarriage of justice in the initial review.
Sullivan appealed in 2019 without the help of the CCRC, and the court declined the bid in 2021.
However, the committee was able to take up the case later that year and find the DNA that set Sullivan freely using scientific methods that were not available during previous reviews.
“In light of that evidence, it is impossible to consider the appellant’s beliefs safe,” said Judge Timothy Holloyd.
Police said the DNA found in subsequent investigations was not matched by anyone in the national database. They excluded Cindal’s fiancée, members of her family, and more than 260 men, who had been screened since the investigation resumed, as suspects.
Sullivan’s sister Kim Smith reflected outside the courtroom on tolls that won two families.
“We lost Peter for 39 years and we’re not alone at the end of the day,” Smith said. “Peter didn’t win, and there’s no Cindal’s family either. They lost their daughter, they’re not going to get her back. We’ve got Peter back and now we have to try and build a life around him again.”
