The man who spent 38 years in prison for the murder of Bartender in 1987 overturned: “I am not angry” Blogging Sole

A man who spent nearly four decades in a British prison in the murder of a bartender said that he was neither angry nor bitter Tuesday because his conviction for murder had been canceled due to newly available DNA evidence.

Peter Sullivan put his hand on his mouth and seemed to become emotional when the London Court of Appeal ordered his conviction canceled after years of attempted to empty his name.

He is the oldest victim of an unjustified conviction in the United Kingdom, said lawyer Sarah Myatt outside the court. His release occurred by 38 years, seven months and 21 days after his arrest, a total of 14,113 days in detention, The BBC reported. About a year of this time was devoted to pre -trial detention pending trial.

Sullivan, who watched the audience by video of Wakefield’s prison in northern England, said in a statement that he was not full of resentment and was impatient to see his relatives.

“As God is my witness, we say that the truth will take you freely,” read Myatt in the declaration. “It is regrettable that this does not give a period of time while we are progressing towards the resolution of the wrongs that have been made to me. I’m not angry, I’m not bitter. “

Sullivan, 68, was sentenced in 1987 for killing Diane Sindall in Bebington, near Liverpool in northwestern England. He spent 38 years behind bars.

Sindall, 21, a florist who was engaged to get married, returned home from a part -time job in a pub on Friday evening in August 1986 when his van missed, the police announced. It was seen for the last time walking along the road after midnight.

His body was found about 12 hours later in an alley. She had been sexually and seriously beaten.

The sexual fluid found on Sindall’s body could not be scientifically analyzed until recently.

The court learned that technology had only been developed very recently to the point that the sperm sample, recovered from Sindall’s abdomen, could be tested for DNA, BBC reported. A test in 2024 revealed that it was not Sullivan, said defense lawyer Jason Pitter.

“The case is that he was a person. He was a person who has sexual assault against the victim,” said Pitter. “The evidence here is now that a person was not the defendant.”

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson did not dispute the appeal and said that if DNA evidence had been available at the time of the investigation, it was inconceivable that Sullivan would have been prosecuted.

Merseyside police said they had reopened the investigation when the call was underway and that he was “determined to do everything” to find the killer.

The detective chief superintendent Karen Jandrill said that more than 260 men had been projected and eliminated from the renewed survey since 2023, the BBC reported.

“We have recruited the specialized skills and expertise of the National Crime Agency, and with their support, we proactively try to identify the person to which the DNA profile belongs, and in-depth and doubtful investigations are underway,” she said.

The Criminal Affairs Revision Commission, which examines any unjustified convictions, had refused to refer the Sullivan affair to the court of appeal in 2008, and the Court withdrew in 2019.

But the CCRC resumed the case when the new DNA evidence was available.

“In the light of these evidence, it is impossible to consider the conviction of the appellant as safe,” said judge Timothy Holroyde.

Sullivan’s sister Kim Smith reflected outside the court on the record that the case had addressed two families.

“We lost Peter for 39 years and ultimately, it’s not just us,” said Smith. “Peter did not win and either the Sindall family. They lost their daughter, they will not recover it. We have recovered Peter and now we have to try to strengthen a life around him.”