A £20,000 reward has been offered to find the real ‘Beast of Birkenhead’ who brutally raped and murdered a 21-year-old woman almost 40 years ago.
Peter Sullivan, 68, was wrongly jailed for 38 years for the killing of bride-to-be Diane Sindall in Merseyside on the night of August 1, 1986.
He was released from prison in May last year after new tests showed his DNA was not present in semen samples collected at the scene.
But by that point Mr Sullivan, who had always protested his innocence, had become the victim of the longest miscarriage of justice in the UK.
The breakthrough in the case came following a special investigation by Stephen Wright in the Mail on Sunday, who spent months combing over all the evidence.
It is understood that an unknown male is responsible for the killing – with the reexamined DNA not matching anyone in Ms Sindall’s family or her then fiancé David Beattie, who has since moved to Australia.
Ms Sindall, who worked at a florist but also part time at the Wellington Pub in Bebington, Wirral, was murdered on her way home from a shift.
The blue Fiat vian she was driving ran out of petrol and she was seen walking between midnight and 12.20am, believed to be heading towards a bus stop or garage.
Ms Sindall’s body was discovered 12 hours later in an alleyway by a dog walker. She had been raped and violently beaten to death.
Part-time barmaid Diane Sindall, 21, was savagely battered to death in August 1986, stripped half-naked, indecently assaulted, mutilated and bitten, and her body discarded in an alleyway
Innocent Peter Sullivan – whose conviction was quashed in May last year for a murder he did not commit – says he was ‘bullied’ into wrongly confessing and ‘stitched up’
Pictured: The blue Fiat van that Ms Sindall was driving on the night she was murdered
Mr Sullivan, then aged 30, admitted to the killing and was dubbed the Beast of Birkenhead, but he later retracted his confession.
The former labourer – who has learning difficulties – said he could never ‘forgive’ officers for how they allegedly treated him.
Merseyside Police has now launched a renewed appeal to find Ms Sindall’s killer.
The force is working with Crimestoppers who have offered a £20,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the culprit.
Due to his wrongful conviction, Mr Sullivan is now entitled to a possible £1.3million in compensation.
However, legal experts have said that no amount of money will ever be able to reflect the reputational damage he has suffered.
Toby Wilton, who is representing Andrew Malkinson in his application for compensation after he was wrongly jailed for 17 years for rape, previously told the Mail: ‘It is completely inappropriate to have any cap.
‘A payment of £1 million in the most serious cases goes nowhere near to putting victims back in the position they would have been in had they not been put in prison.’
‘And he said the maximum payout would not properly reflect the reputational damage caused to Mr Sullivan, who was dubbed the Beast of Birkenhead for the Merseyside murder.
Detective Superintendent Rachel Wilson from Merseyside Police said: ‘Although it has been nearly 40 years since Diane’s murder, we still believe there are people who know what happened, or have their own suspicions, who haven’t yet come forward.
‘My message would be ‘it is never too late to do the right thing. On August 17, 1986 property belonging to Diane was recovered on Bidston Hill.
‘The investigation team at the time identified witnesses who had seen a small fire, at the location where the property was found, on Sunday 3 August, and had witnessed a man running from the scene.
‘Were you on Borough Road on the evening of Friday, August 1, or the early hours of Saturday, August 2, and saw or heard something suspicious?
‘Or can you help identify the man seen running away from Bidston Hill on Sunday 3 August?
‘Additionally in the years since Diane’s murder, has anybody you know raised any suspicions or passed any information which you think could help? Please come forward and tell us what you know.
The Wirral pub where Diane Sindall worked to help pay for her forthcoming wedding
Pictured on video link from Wakefield Prison when his conviction for murdering Diane Sindall was quashed in May last year, Peter Sullivan wrongly spent nearly 40 years behind bars
‘We can trace and request a DNA sample from any person you suspect or even a relative if they have passed away or emigrated.’
Gary Murray, North West regional manager at Crimestoppers, added: ‘Please help bring answers to Diane’s family, who have waited almost 40 years for justice.
‘Someone, somewhere, knows what happened that night, and we’re urging them to come forward.
‘What you know could finally give Diane’s loved ones the answers they’ve been waiting for.
‘Crimestoppers is independent of the police. When you contact us, you stay completely anonymous.
‘Your personal details are never asked for, and your call or online report cannot be traced back to you.’
At his trial, prosecutors said Mr Sullivan had spent the day drinking, and went out armed with a crowbar.
Evidence at the time suggested the petty thief had recently borrowed a crowbar from a neighbour.
He was placed near the scene by witnesses following a BBC Crimewatch appeal.
But he denied going anywhere near where the crime took place or having the crowbar in his possession, and said he had given different accounts to police because he could not remember his movements.
Mr Sullivan was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 16 years in 1987, but denied parole multiple times, largely due to his refusal to admit responsibility for the killing.
He applied to the High Court for permission to appeal against his conviction in 2019, but this was rejected by the Court of Appeal in 2021.
A memorial tablet on a grass verge close to the scene of Ms Sindall’s murder
Then, in November 2024, the Criminal Cases Review Commission said his case had been referred to the Court of Appeal on the basis of the DNA evidence.
Samples taken at the time of the murder were re-examined and a DNA profile that did not match Mr Sullivan was found.
This crucial evidence was revealed by a method that only came into use in 2015, and he was finally freed after the Court of Appeal in London quashed his conviction in May.
Speaking from a secret location, and with his face obscured and voice changed to hide his current appearance, Mr Sullivan said he wanted an apology from Merseyside Police.
Mr Sullivan said being denied legal representation at his initial police interviews had been ‘very daunting’.
He told the broadcaster he was beaten in his cell on two occasions.
‘They threw a blanket over the top of me and they were hitting me on top of the blanket with the truncheons to try and get me to co-operate with them,’ he said.
‘It really hurt, they were leathering me.’
Asked why he would confess to a murder he did not commit, Mr Sullivan told the BBC: ‘All I can say, it was the bullying that forced me to throw my hands in, because I couldn’t take it anymore.’
He said he felt ‘sorry’ for Miss Sindall’s family who are ‘back at square one and not knowing who the person is that killed their daughter’.
Quashing his murder conviction in May, Lord Justice Holroyde said: ‘Strong though the circumstantial evidence undoubtedly seemed at the trial, it is now necessary to take into account the new scientific evidence pointing to someone else – the unknown man.’
The new suspect identified by new DNA techniques does not appear on the national database, nor is he linked to any other unsolved offences.
Police have confirmed the DNA does not belong to any of Miss Sindall’s family or her then fiancé David Beattie, who has since moved to Australia.