A man sensationally freed after spending 38 years in jail for a murder he didn’t commit was denied parole just three months ago – because he steadfastly wouldn’t admit the crime he has now been cleared of.
The Parole Board’s report, obtained by the Mail, turned down Peter Sullivan’s bid to be freed in February this year, saying he had refused to confess his guilt.
On Tuesday, Mr Sullivan was vindicated as his conviction was dramatically overturned almost four decades after he was locked up as a young man, making it one of Britain’s longest ever miscarriages of justice.
Now aged 68, Mr Sullivan was just 29 when he was convicted of being a sadistic sex killer known as the ‘Beast of Birkenhead’, but DNA evidence proves he was not the man who brutalised and murdered young florist and barmaid Diane Sindall in 1986.
At the time of the Parole Board decision, in February, the likelihood of Mr Sullivan being declared innocent was obvious after the Mail had already revealed his shocking case to the world.
