A man who has been in prison for more than 35 years for murder will have his conviction re-examined after DNA evidence emerged.
Peter Sullivan was found guilty of killing Diane Sindall after she left work in Bebington, Merseyside in August 1986 and has been in prison since the following year.
Sullivan, then 29, had spent the day drinking heavily after losing a darts match and went out armed with a crowbar.
That’s when he came across 21-year-old florist and part-time barmaid Ms Sindall as she walked to a petrol station when – according to his conviction – he beat her to death.
Sullivan was dubbed the “beast of Birkenhead” or the “wolfman” because of bite marks found on the victim’s body and was unanimously found guilty.
But in Sullivan’s third attempt to overturn his conviction, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has confirmed the case has been referred to the Court of Appeal.
The CCRC said Sullivan applied to the body in March 2021, citing concerns over police interviews, bitemark evidence given at his trial and the murder weapon.
After consulting experts, the commission said DNA information from samples taken at the time of the offence formed a profile that did not match Sullivan.
There may have been breaches of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, the CCRC added, as Sullivan was denied initial legal representation.
Sullivan has also claimed he had not been provided with an appropriate adult during interviews.
He previously applied to the body in 2008, raising questions about DNA evidence, but forensic experts said further testing was unlikely to reveal a DNA profile.
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In 2019, he applied to the High Court for permission to appeal against his conviction over bite mark evidence, but this was rejected in 2021.