"> Too bad Dudley Moore isn't still around. Could've played this guy. 
Posted on 05/13/2025 4:45:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Peter Sullivan, now 68, had his conviction quashed after new DNA evidence emerged.
The UK’s Court of Appeal has quashed the murder conviction of a man who has spent almost 38 years in prison after fresh DNA evidence emerged.
Peter Sullivan was convicted of the murder of Diane Sindall in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison.
He is believed to be the longest-serving living victim of a miscarriage of justice in the UK’s history. Sullivan has maintained his innocence throughout that time, his lawyer, Sarah Myatt said.
Sindall, a 21-year-old florist who had been working part-time in a bar as she saved money for her wedding, was found dead on 2 August 1986 after leaving her place of work in Bebington, Merseyside, the night before.
She was sexually assaulted and murdered on her way home from a shift.
‘Not angry, not bitter’
In a statement read by his lawyer, Sullivan said he was “not angry, not bitter”: “I am simply anxious to return to my loved ones and family, as I’ve got to make the most of what is left of the existence I am granted in this world.”
He said that his own experience of miscarriage of justice “does not detract or minimise that all of this happened off the back of a heinous and most terrible loss of life”.
“I am aware of how cruel time can be to a person stripped of their youth and mobility, sight and hearing. I have had to silently endure this and watch it stripped from me, in the worst environment imaginable."
He asked for privacy as he begins "repairing what I may from the driftwood that is my life".
Sullivan offered his condolences to Sindall’s loved ones. “I would like to say how sorry I am to the family of Diane Sindall, who have now got to come to terms with the death of their daughter being down to someone else.
“I long to see the right thing done for this horrible crime so that they will find peace.”
New DNA testing techniques
Sullivan’s acquittal came on Monday thanks to evidence presented due to modern DNA testing techniques.
He had previously applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in 2008, questioning DNA evidence, but the commission did not refer his case to the Court of Appeal as forensic experts advised that new testing would be unlikely to produce a DNA profile.
While the techniques used to quash his conviction were not available in 2008, the CCRC acknowledged that other available methods could have been tried. However, it is said that it is impossible to know whether they would have produced the same result.
The CCRC is responsible for independently reviewing suspected and alleged miscarriages of criminal justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It receives around 1,500 applications for reviews annually, and refers about 3% of applications to the appeal courts.
Sullivan subsequently sought to appeal directly in 2019, without a referral from the CCRC, but this was rejected by the Court of Appeal in 2021. He then reapplied to the CCRC in March 2021, at which time the organisation obtained DNA information from samples taken at the time of the offence.
Merseyside Police has since reopened its investigation into Sindall's murder, but despite screening more than 260 men using the national DNA database, none have come up as matches.
The force appealed to anyone who may have "any information, or suspicions, about the murder of Diane (Sindall) in 1986" to come forward.
“As the Court of Appeal heard today, the new DNA evidence that has led to Mr Sullivan’s conviction being quashed could not have been available when we first considered his case, and that the decision made then not to send this case back to the courts in 2008 was the correct one," a spokesperson for the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) said.
“However, we do regret that we were not able to identify Mr Sullivan’s conviction as a potential miscarriage of justice in our first review.”
The statement said the organisation is "committed to taking forward learning from previous reviews and we continue to develop our understanding around forensic opportunities".
Think he’ll at least get a t-shirt from the limeys? /s
in the article I read earlier today it describes the guy as a low IQ moron and that basically they just wanted to convict someone.
It blows my mind that people here do not understand that laws in foreign countries can be different than ours, and their court system as well.
the geographically displaced people who end up here think our court/legal system is a joke
It seems the old saying is true. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Never talk to police, especially if you are a low IQ moron.
He did it. A witness saw him burning the pants, panties, and shoes that he took from her. The witness knew him by name, and a cop located him. He gave a confession saying that he only asked her for a smoke, and he didn’t know why he lashed out and hit her with a brick. His bite matched bite marks on her body. He was not a DNA match for the semen found in her body, but that doesn’t prove anything. She was 21 years old, and it’s completely within the realm of the possible that she had another man’s semen inside her when he attacked and killed her.
No match on the semen found inside her body could confirm somebody completely unknown and captured was the rapist. But it cannot exonerate somebody.
He did it. This is more of that modern Avery brothers making of a murderer baloney. The Brits probably make need to make room to lock up someone who posts the wrong thing on social media.
Low IQ morons also have the alarming habit of becoming violent and killing people. I am
"> Too bad Dudley Moore isn't still around. Could've played this guy.
I am not a low IQ moron, but I have met some.
A guy in FL was jailed for a murder in 1983. Turns out he was innocent. He’ll never get those 37 years back.
-SB
“He did it...The Brits probably make need to make room to lock up someone who posts the wrong thing on social media.”
Thanks, I figured as much. It’s amazing how people who think they’re conservatives can be so easily tricked into trusting a bunch of Leftists that never wanted to put anyone in jail for violent offenses in the first place.
See how good is the English law Justice system works? They can convict a person that absolutely did not do it!
What kind of idiot procedure can make it possible to convict someone who absolutely did not do it?
Yes, this is England, but this same incompetence has happened over here an excessive number of times.
The normal court process is dysfunctional, and produces erroneous results far too often.
Absolutely true. Court is a game, and the verdict depends on who plays the game better. Evidence gets withheld. Explanations are prevented from being aired. Jurors react to drama, and attorneys with good acting skills have an advantage. If I were falsely accused of something I would have very little faith in our justice system to find the truth.
Prosecutors and defendants should both have the opportunity to write down their case (with help if the defendant needs it) with all of the facts as they see them. These should be given to the other side, who can then write a rebuttal. These documents should be given to a jury before trial begins. It should be about finding the truth, not manipulating things to obscure it.
Had he been islamic he would never been charged.
Prosecutors and defendants should both have the opportunity to write down their case (with help if the defendant needs it) with all of the facts as they see them. These should be given to the other side, who can then write a rebuttal. These documents should be given to a jury before trial begins. It should be about finding the truth, not manipulating things to obscure it.
Absolutely agree.
“No match on the semen found inside her body could confirm somebody completely unknown and captured was the rapist. “
It’s likely they’ll determine who the semen donor was using genetic genealogy.
I’d say possible, but I wouldn’t say likely. I’d bet fewer than half of Euros and Americans have given a sample. If you were an adult in the 80s, very unlikely.
So if another guy had sex with her in 1986, and was just a normal guy, wasn’t ever arrested, incarcerated, in the military, etc.... and died in the subsequent 40 years.... he may not be in any database.
Might be possible though.
Ooops.
Sorry, mate.
That’s the beauty of genetic genealogy. You don’t have to be in the database to be found. The combination of family trees and the DNA matches of distant cousins in public genealogy databases can point the finger directly at an individual. Law enforcement can then get a DNA sample from a discarded cup to confirm the identity.
Basically, genetic genealogy creates an investigative lead or leads for traditional law enforcement to follow up on.
The semen donor can expect a knock on the door within a year, maybe within 6 months. If they’re still alive.
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