‘Real identification of Diane Sindall killer used to be identified on Birkenhead estates’

The actual identification of the person who brutally murdered Diane Sindall used to be identified through other folks at the estates in Birkenhead, a charity arrange in her reminiscence has claimed.

Peter Sullivan, now 68, used to be acquitted of her homicide on the Court of Appeal on Tuesday because of new DNA proof after spending nearly 40 years in jail.

RASA Merseyside used to be set as much as lend a hand sufferers of sexual violence after the 21-year-old used to be crushed to dying in August 1986 as she walked house from a shift at the back of the bar at a Bebington pub.

Josephine Wood from the charity advised the BBC that they had been approached through a number of native individuals who advised them police had the unsuitable guy, however they wouldn’t divulge the identification to detectives.

These other folks didn’t proportion the identify of the person they suspected used to be the actual killer, and have been unwilling to come back ahead as assets to lend a hand the investigation.

“I know that we were approached on occasions by people who felt they could come to us and talk to us because we’d been set up almost in memory to Diane and as a tribute to her,” Ms Wood mentioned.

“We were told on several occasions that the police had the wrong man.

“But we did not have proof, we did not have the rest to provide, we simply knew what we might been advised and the persons are adamant that you have got the unsuitable particular person.

“But without any evidence, without names, without people willing to come forward which is a really big deal, seriously what could be done?”

Ms Wood mentioned some disadvantaged spaces round Birkenhead on the time had “tribal” and “tight-knit” communities that made it tricky for other folks to come back ahead.

“If something had happened in that estate it would be really hard for someone to actually come forward and say ‘we know who this is’, for fear of repercussions, for fear of what might happen,” she mentioned.

“I would like to think that maybe 40 years down the line we can actually now go back to those people and say ‘come on tell us what you know’.

“Tell us what took place, you will have to really feel more secure now, you will have to really feel some way that you’ll be able to come ahead, as a result of if this man hasn’t accomplished it anyone else has and we want to in finding out who that used to be.”

After Mr Sullivan’s acquittal, Merseyside Police issued an urgent appeal for anyone who had any suspicions about someone they believed could have committed the crime in 1986 to get in touch.

Det Ch Supt Jaundrill said the force had been notified in 2023 that a new DNA profile had been extracted from semen samples preserved from the crime scene.

More than 260 men identified as part of the original investigation had been tested and eliminated as potential suspects.

Mr Sullivan’s solicitor, Sarah Myatt, previously told the BBC that Mr Sullivan had “by no means misplaced hope” that he would be acquitted.

She said he continued to maintain his innocence despite the fact he would have had a much stronger case to be freed on licence if he had told the parole board he accepted what he had done.

Ms Myatt added: “He mentioned ‘I can’t admit to one thing I have not accomplished’, even if that supposed that the parole board would imagine issues in that means.”