London letter
When he understood, on May 13, that he was a free man, Peter Sullivan, 68, overwhelmed by emotion, brought his hand to his mouth and let out a sob. Appearing at his appeal trial by videoconferencing, from Wakefield prison (Yorkshire), where he served his sentence, this man was declared innocent after being sentenced in 1987 for the rape and murder of Diane Sindall, 21, in Birkenhead.
In this port city opposite Liverpool, the assassination, one evening in August 1986, of this florist who had just left the pub where she was making extra, remained in all memories. The real murderer is still running, while Peter Sullivan has a terrible record: this man spent thirty-eight years of his life behind bars, for nothing.
This miscarriage of justice again illustrates the serious dysfunctions of the UK appeal process. In 2023, Andrew Malkinson, an ex-security agent, was bleached after seventeen years of detention for a rape perpetrated in 2003 near Manchester, which he had not committed. Postman Victor Nealon, who had also stopped claiming his innocence after being sentenced to rape in 1996, was released in 2013 after spending seventeen years in prison.
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Source: Lemonde