Peter Sullivan, who has spent 38 years in prison for the murder of Diane Sindall in 1986, has had his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal.
New DNA evidence is “sufficient fundamentally to cast doubt on the safety of the conviction” of Sullivan, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told the Court of Appeal.
Sullivan was found guilty of the 1986 murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Bebington, Merseyside, in 1987, but has remained in prison despite being sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years.
Now aged 68, he has served 38 years in prison and has previously tried to overturn his conviction twice.
The memorial stone for Diane Sindall on Borough Road in Birkenhead, Wirral
PA
He has raised concerns over analysis of bite marks and the conduct of police interviews.
Sullivan has been freed today after new DNA evidence showed he did not commit the attack.
Duncan Atkinson KC, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, told the court that the breakthrough is "sufficient fundamentally to cast doubt on the safety of the conviction".
It is believed to be the longest-running miscarriage of justice affecting a living prisoner in UK history.