Police rule out 500 men as 'Beast of Birkenhead'

A team of cold case detectives trying to solve a murder that resulted in the wrong man spending 38 years in prison have ruled out 500 men through DNA testing.

Peter Sullivan - called the "Beast of Birkenhead" by tabloid newspapers - spent 38 years behind bars after being wrongly accused of beating Diane Sindall, 21, to death in a frenzied sexual attack in Birkenhead, Wirral, in 1986.

Sullivan was freed last year after a new DNA profile was recovered, and it proved to be categorically not a match for him.

The case was re-opened by Merseyside Police, who asked people to come forward to be voluntarily tested. The force said 500 have so far been eliminated and 43 further samples are being tested.

Police have also issued a fuller description of the suspected killer - a man who was seen arguing with Sindall the last time she was seen alive.

He is described as white, in his early 20s, 5ft 10in (1.8m) and slim with dark and tidy hair.

He was wearing a dark brown leather jacket and jeans.

DNA tests have been carried out in Merseyside, as well as in Australia, London, Swansea, Newcastle and Hull.

Det Supt Rachel Wilson said: "Now we've got a full male DNA profile we can work to, we are really keen to look at how we can eliminate people from the inquiry and we can do that through voluntary samples."

Sindall was doing part-time bar work to save up for her wedding when she was ambushed on her way home from a shift at the Wellington Pub in Bebington, late on 1 August 1986.

She was dragged into an alley off Borough Road in Birkenhead and her partially-naked body was found the following afternoon.

Police believe that while she left the pub in a blue Fiat van, it ran out of petrol and she set out on foot along Borough Road, either to get to a bus stop or to try and find an all-night garage.

The brutality of the attack led to led to her killer being dubbed "The Beast of Birkenhead".

Sullivan, 68, told the BBC he was beaten by police officers and "bullied" into falsely admitting murder, in his first interview since his release.

He was interviewed 22 times over four weeks, and was denied legal representation for the first seven interviews.

Sullivan, who has learning difficulties, had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal in May last year.

Independent charity Crimestoppers has offered a £20,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the real killer.

The reward is only available to people who provide information to Crimestoppers and not directly to the police, and the offer will be in place until April.

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