Amount of compensation British man who spent 38 years in prison for murder could receive as conviction is overturned
The man known as the 'Beast of Birkenhead', who spent 38 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, is set to receive a compensation fee over the sentence he wrongly served.
Peter Sullivan, 68, was wrongly convicted of the murder of Diane Sindall back in 1986.
Sullivan was 30 when he was sentenced to life behind bars, and remained locked up for almost four painful decades.
His release comes after breakthrough DNA evidence last year showed that it was actually an unknown man who raped and murdered the 21-year-old in Bebington, Merseyside.
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On Tuesday (15 May), the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission quashed his conviction, following two previous attempts.
In a statement read out by his lawyer Sarah Myatt, Sullivan said: “What happened to me was very wrong. But it does not detract or minimise that all of this happened off the back of a heinous and most terrible loss of life.”
He insisted: “I’m not angry, I’m 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.”
Now, a lawyer representing Andrew Malkinson, who was wrongly jailed for 17 years for rape, has suggested that there will be 'a compensation cap' put in place for Sullivan.
Under current rules, the maximum compensation payout is capped at £1 million, which means Sullivan could potentially receive around £26,000 a year.
"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," lawyer Toby Wilton told the Daily Mail.
"They are both very high-profile cases, high-profile crimes... and both have had to live for decades being considered a registered sex offender and a murderer, and with all the difficulties and loss of reputation that goes with that.
"Compensation for that should be taken into account, but the cap effectively means the compensation will not reflect that."
Malkinson was given a six-figure payment in February after delays left him turning to food banks.
"Mr Sullivan will be waiting months if not years to get his interim payment," he explained. "The process of assessing his claim takes a very long time."
Sarah Myatt previously recalled the moment she was told the evidence had been collected to clear Sullivan's name.
“When we received the news that the DNA results had come through and that evidence was there (to clear him), I will remember that phone call for the rest of my career and beyond,” she told BBC Breakfast.
She said he now wants to be 'left in peace' to 'resettle and readjust'.
Anish Vij