The Beast of Birkenhead: Trailer
4/17/20263 min
The murder of Diane Sindall in Birkenhead, Merseyside led to Britain’s longest miscarriage of justice when local man Peter Sullivan's conviction collapsed after 38 years.
This series returns to the streets, alleyways and estates of Birkenhead where it all happened, retracing Diane’s final movements.
Follow through eyewitness testimony, unheard accounts and modern forensic science as we uncover how a brutal crime in a public place went unsolved for decades, while a killer may still be alive and closer to home than anyone realised.
At the heart of this story is Diane: who she was, how violence against women shaped the investigation and what justice really looks like when a community has lived with fear, silence and unanswered questions for generations.
Presenter: Olivia Graham. Producers: Kate Bissell, Gemma Maull and Olivia Graham. Sound Design and Music Composition: Phil Channell. Mixing: Ivan Eastley. Story Consultants: Neil McCarthy, Jack Kibble-White and Kirsty Williams. Online Producer: Rachael Smith. Development was by BBC Audio Scotland and BBC Merseyside. Executive Editors: Gillian Wheelan and Ben Anderson. Commissioning Editor: Alistair Miskin.
There’s graphic descriptions of violence in this series. For details of help and support in the UK, visit bbc.co.uk/actionline.
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Olivia Graham· Host0:03
[upbeat music] Chicago, 2011. A cop is murdered. Police and prosecutors swear they have the trigger man. He swears he didn't do it. How far will each side go to prove they're right?
Speaker 20:18
Like, it's just one bombshell after another. You know, where you're like, "I... What? What?"
Olivia Graham· Host0:23
The story of a PlayStation, a brain-eating amoeba, and the relentless pursuit of justice. Off Duty, out now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Olivia Graham0:35
[dramatic music] Diane Sindel was 21. She'd just finished a Friday night shift in the Wellington Pub, Bebington, on the Wirral. It had been busy. She collected all the empties and cashed up. It was a summer night, 1986. When Diane left work, it was close to midnight and dark. The landlord walked her to her car.
Speaker 4· Soundbite1:07
And she said, "I'm starving. I think I'll go for fish and chips on the way home." And I said, "I think you should go straight home." She went, "Well, I, I haven't got much petrol." I said, "Well, go for petrol first, then go for your fish and chips."
Olivia Graham1:18
But Diane never made it to the chippy. Her car ran out of petrol in Birkenhead, next to the flyover that comes down from the Mersey Tunnel.
Speaker 5· Soundbite1:26
She left it locked, unaware