The harrowing case of Peter Sullivan shames the English justice system

The quashing of the conviction of Peter Sullivan, who spent almost 40 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, is not merely another unfortunate lapse in the English justice system. It is a profound national disgrace, and it demands a reckoning. Sullivan, a vulnerable man with learning difficulties, had his life taken from him by a system more interested in expediency and public relations than truth and fairness. It has cost him 38 years of freedom – a lifetime stolen – and even now those responsible refuse to face the consequences of their actions.

The details of Sullivan’s treatment should chill every citizen who values justice. In 1986, he was convicted of the murder of Diane Sindall, a 21-year-old florist whose body was found in Birkenhead, near Liverpool. He was interrogated without legal representation, denied sleep and food, threatened with dozens of fictitious charges and, on his account, beaten by police officers until he finally capitulated and confessed to something he did not do. That is not policing: it is coercion. It belongs in a dictatorship, not a civilised democracy. Yet Merseyside Police, instead of offering a full apology, have retreated behind the feeble claim that their officers acted ‘within the law at the time’. There is no point in Merseyside Police attempting to cover this up, nor in the Independent Office for Police Conduct aiding and abetting them in doing so. The country can see precisely what is happening, and it disgusts us.

My thoughts are with Peter Sullivan and his family, who fought relentlessly to clear his name. They are also with the family of Diane Sindall, left once again without truth or closure. Both families have been betrayed by a catastrophic failure of policing. Both have endured decades of unbearable grief and confusion. And we must state the most chilling reality plainly: while Peter Sullivan’s life was destroyed for a crime he did not commit, the real perpetrator of a serious, heinous crime has been walking the streets for nearly 40 years, unpunished and unknown. That is the true legacy of this case – a double tragedy caused by a disgracefully incompetent investigation.

This latest miscarriage of justice is not an isolated tragedy. It is part of a deeply troubling pattern that has persisted for decades. Not long ago I wrote about Clive Freeman, an 82-year-old former soldier who has spent nearly 37 years in prison for a murder that may never have happened, and who is now terminally ill. Andrew Malkinson spent 17 years behind bars for a rape he did not commit, despite evidence that should have exonerated him. We need only think back to the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, Stefan Kiszko and many others who lost decades to a system that preferred certainty to accuracy. These cases were supposed to wake us up. Instead, they have been treated like unfortunate historical curiosities, while the same institutional failures continue unchecked.

I also know personally the devastation caused by false allegations. Under Operation Midland, the Metropolitan Police in 2014 declared the accusations against me – a lurid fantasy that I and other members of parliament operated a ‘paedophile ring’ in Westminster – to be ‘credible and true’ before they investigated anything at all. My reputation was destroyed without a shred of evidence. If the police can behave like that openly and with media applause, imagine what happens in windowless interview rooms to individuals with no power, no support and no voice.

And yet, astonishingly, some politicians are still calling for the return of capital punishment. The latest is former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, demanding executions as if they are a solution rather than a barbaric and irreversible gamble. I disagree wholeheartedly. While guilt may appear unequivocal in many cases, our justice system is far from infallible. As a member of parliament, I once supported the death penalty, but the vicissitudes of life changed my mind. As president of Facing Allegations in Contexts of Trust, I have seen how the system fails. Cases like Andrew Malkinson demonstrate that failure in devastating fashion. How many are wrongfully imprisoned? How many have taken their own lives because they could not escape a false label?

Just because something polls well does not make it right. Justice must be measured – not irreversible. An eye for an eye does not deliver justice. It simply deepens our blindness.

Something must now change. There are people still in prison today who maintain their innocence and remain incarcerated beyond their minimum sentences because they refuse to lie and ‘admit guilt’ simply to satisfy the perverse requirements of the parole system. This must be addressed urgently. Every such case must be reviewed immediately. These prisoners deserve a fair investigation, not decades of punishment for refusing to perjure themselves. And when innocence is finally proven, compensation must be paid swiftly and fairly. The state must stop fighting innocent victims through the courts as though they are enemies to be crushed rather than citizens deserving restitution.

Peter Sullivan left prison for a world unrecognisable from the one he last saw in 1986. He is now bereft of family, without possessions, without a life, and with scars that no compensation can ever heal. His parents died before seeing their son cleared. No sum of money or polite statement of ‘regret’ can restore what was taken from him. And yet even now the institutions responsible are refusing to say the simple words that matter: we were wrong. We are sorry. We will change.

Until this country confronts the truth that innocent people are still imprisoned – that false confessions happen, that evidence is mishandled, that police forces prioritise reputation over justice, and that the justice system still treats the accused as guilty until they can somehow prove otherwise – another Peter Sullivan already sitting in a cell whose life is being stolen as we speak.

We cannot accept this any longer.

Harvey Proctor is a former Conservative MP and president of Facing Allegations in Contexts of Trust (FACT).