Cops reopen probe into murder of bride-to-be 37 YEARS after killer ‘The Wolfman’ was jailed for horrific crowbar murder
A CONVICTED murderer who has spent nearly 40 years in jail for battering a bride-to-be to death has had his case sent to the Court of Appeal following new DNA evidence, The Sun can reveal.
Peter Sullivan, 64, dubbed “The Wolfman”, is serving life in prison for killing florist Diane Sindall, 21, with a crowbar in 1986 in Bebington, Merseyside.
His conviction has now been called into question after new DNA evidence has come to light.
Mr Sullivan applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in March 2021 raising concerns about his interviews by the police, bite mark evidence presented in his trial, and the alleged murder weapon.
After consulting experts, the CCRC obtained DNA information from samples taken at the time of the offence.
As a result, a new profile was obtained which did not match Mr Sullivan and the CCRC has now sent his conviction back to the courts.
A CCRC spokesman said there is also evidence to suggest there were possible breaches of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), which regulates police activities in relation to the interviews.
Mr Sullivan was not provided with an appropriate adult and was denied initial legal representation.
He had previously applied to the CCRC in 2008 questioning DNA evidence.
Experts from the Forensic Science Service (FSS) advised that any further testing would be very unlikely to produce a profile.
Since reopening the case, Merseyside Police has now since written to hundreds of people who could be a possible match for new DNA evidence, asking them for a sample to rule them out of the investigation.
The force has also requested that they give details of any biological relatives who might share the same DNA characteristics so they can be sampled as well.
Diane was attacked as she walked home from her part-time job as a barmaid.
Mr Sullivan was jailed for life for murder and is currently facing no prospect of parole following the biggest manhunt Merseyside had ever seen at that time.
He was said to have inflicted injuries so barbaric they were never revealed by police, but he was convicted by bite marks found on her body which matched his dental records.
During the trial at Liverpool crown court, Dr Geoffrey Garrett, the Home Office pathologist who carried out the post-mortem on Diane’s body, said: “The severity of the injuries left little doubt that Diane would have died very quickly once the blows rained down, but she was then dragged backwards and stripped almost naked.”
An odontologist told the jury that the bite marks on her body matched Sullivan’s teeth perfectly and were as unique as a fingerprint.
Sullivan, who had a string of mostly petty convictions, confessed but later retracted it, before being convicted by a jury in November 1987.