A man who has served 38 years in prison for the murder of a woman has had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal after new DNA evidence emerged.

Peter Sullivan was jailed in 1987 over the killing of 21-year-old barmaid Diane Sindall, who was subjected to a frenzied sexual attack in Birkenhead, Merseyside, as she walked home from a shift.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission – the statutory body set up to investigate potential miscarriages of justice – had referred Mr Sullivan’s case back to the appeal court last year after fresh testing found a DNA profile pointing to an unknown attacker in semen samples preserved from the crime scene.

Mr Sullivan, now 68, is believed to be the victim of the longest miscarriage of justice involving a living prisoner in British legal history.