Latest news with #Seacombe
Daily Mail
09-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Mothers brawl in primary school playground after one accused the other of sleeping with her ex
Two women came to blows in front of other parents and children at a primary school after one accused the other of sleeping with her ex, a court has heard. Mother-of-four Natasha Sherlock, 29, and mother-of-three Samantha Rylance, 28, had a fight while collecting their children from Sommerville Primary School in Seacombe on the Wirral last July. In front of a crowd of shocked bystanders, Sherlock accused her fellow parent of sleeping with her ex-boyfriend before shouting, 'Do not f**ing talk to my kids', as her daughter waved at her rival. The pair then scuffled on the tarmac in a scrap which saw Rylance slap Sherlock who then punched Rylance in the face. The fight was eventually broken up by Rylance's partner Callum Roberts and Sherlock's father, who had been helping collect the children. Police were called by Rylance and were passed CCTV of the incident by the school's headmaster. Sherlock was later arrested at her home. Both women were left with black eyes following the melee. At Sefton Magistrates' Court on Monday, Sherlock, from Birkenhead on the Wirral, stood trial for assault by beating but was cleared after insisting she acted in self-defence. But District Judge Paul Healey, who viewed the CCTV, said: 'This took place on a school playground, with parents and kids around. It is a thoroughly unpleasant incident to witness.' Rylance told the hearing: 'I was coming onto the playground and her daughter waved at me. I looked at her and that is when she hurled abuse. 'She said, "Do not f**ing look at my children." It was quite loud and there were other parents there. 'I just walked away then collected my little boy and left the small playground to go to the main playground to meet the kids' dad Callum who was collecting the other children. 'But I saw Natasha talking to him and she being aggressive and screaming and shouting at Callum. When she saw me she said: "Yes, f****ing you." 'I said "Leave it, we are on the playground. There are kids around." 'But she said, "Come on, come on, let's go outside" and started grabbing my top. She was screaming and shouting. 'She initially knocked my glasses off and as gentleman picked them she was pulling on my top. 'I knocked her hand away to defend myself but she swung and hit me across the face and that is when it turned into the fight itself. 'After the incident I felt awful. The kids did not want to go to school or let me to take them to school in case I got attacked again.' The CCTV showed Sherlock walking up towards the camera with her father and two children. She then stopped to speak to Callum who was walking in the opposite direction then turned around and saw Rylance. Sherlock appeared to move back slightly but Rylance's hands remained out of view. Sherlock was then seen punching Rylance with her right hand to the left side of her face. Callum told the hearing: 'Natasha was angry. She said, 'You best sort her out' or 'Sort your missis out.' Samantha approached and Natasha said 'Yeah, you'. She then ended up grabbing her and then punched her. I was really worried about the kids. There were arms flying everywhere. ' A police report of the incident said: 'Natasha claims Samantha has slept with her boyfriend causing them to fall out and they have not spoken in a while. She says Rylance approached her but and denies grabbing her clothes and swearing at her. She further claims Rylance hit just below her right eye and has hit her back as a reaction and in self-defence. ' In her evidence Sherlock agreed she had fallen out with Rylance and added: 'It was quite a bad one. On that day she said 'Hi' to my daughter and I said 'Do not talk to my child.' I knew she was trying to wind me up.' 'I saw Callum and I said to him 'Tell her not to speak to me or the kids'. But I heard her shouting and it escalated from there. I said to Samantha, 'Here, let's go to the office and tell them what a dirty little coke-head you are. At that point she slapped me and I responded. 'I felt I had no choice. I was overwhelmed and I felt scared and threatened. I did not know what else to do. I think she only slapped me because she did not want to go to the office. It freaked me out and it scared me. I had my kids with me. I did not know if she was going to hit me again. Obviously it was a shock to everyone when I smacked back but I got hit first. 'I tried walking off but Samantha carried on screaming stuff. If anyone was attacked it was me and I hit her back. I was only aggressive when she started shouting at me.' Sherlock's father Robert said: 'I saw Samantha throw a slap at my daughter and my daughter hit her. I had hold of a pram but I just reacted and jumped in the middle. I put my arms up and tried to prevent any more. I was shocked. It happened so quickly. It was a bit of banter at first then all of a sudden I saw it go boom.' Sherlock's lawyer Paul Davison said: 'The complainant was the aggressor. If she is scared of the defendant and if she hears the defendant shout words when she has a young child with her, why approach unless you are looking for trouble? You just wouldn't but she does.'
The Guardian
13-05-2025
- The Guardian
Legacy of Diane Sindall's murder lives on as 1987 conviction is overturned
People still lay flowers at the granite memorial stone close to the place in Birkenhead where Diane Sindall met her horrific, shocking death. It reads: 'Murdered 2.8.1986 because she was a woman. In memory of all our sisters who have been raped and murdered. We will never let it be forgotten.' On Merseyside, the killing has a legacy that is still felt today. For nearly four decades, many assumed justice had been served and the right man had been convicted. On Tuesday, that was turned on its head when the court of appeal ruled Peter Sullivan was an innocent man. Sullivan was not the 'Beast of Birkenhead', the 'Mersey Ripper' or 'Wolfman'. He was not the unspeakable monster still etched in the memory of so many. He spent 38 years in category A jails for a crime he did not commit. It means there may be someone alive who did kill Sindall and could, and should, be brought to justice. In August 1986, Sindall, a 21-year-old florist, was working part-time shifts at a pub in Bebington to help raise extra money for her planned wedding the following year. At the end of a Friday shift she set off for home, five miles away in Seacombe, in her blue Fiat van only to run out of petrol. She did as anyone else would do and started to walk along a busy, well-lit main road. She was spotted by witnesses walking along Borough Road towards Tranmere between midnight and 12.20am. Whether Sindall was looking for a taxi, heading to an all-night garage or a friend's house is not known for sure. A taxi driver told the BBC's Crimewatch programme that he saw a man and a woman arguing in the street at 12.10am. Twelve hours later Sindall's body was found by a dog walker in an alleyway off Borough Road. She had been beaten to death in a frenzied sex attack. According to police: 'She had suffered extensive injuries to her body. Her cause of death was established as a cerebral haemorrhage following multiple blows.' A pathologist said in court that her injuries were the 'very worst' he had seen 'outside of a road traffic accident'. The murder prompted revulsion, fear and anger with girls and women afraid to be out on streets alone. It was the ordinariness of what happened – running out of petrol on a busy road – that heightened anxiety. John Thompson, who covered the case for the Liverpool Echo, told the BBC: 'Fathers, boyfriends, brothers and husbands would pick women up from work and tell them not to leave the premises until they were right outside the door. 'There was real terror,' he said, because Sindall's murder was 'different – it was horrific'. It led to the first Reclaim the Night march in Liverpool, a movement that began in Leeds after the Yorkshire Ripper murders and as a response to police advice that women shout stay indoors. A group of local women also decided enough was enough, getting together around a kitchen table to found Wirral Rape Crisis Counselling Service (WRCCS), now known as RASA Merseyside. The murder prompted the biggest manhunt in the history of Merseyside police, with officers speaking to about 3,000 people. It is said that at one point, police considered interviewing every man in Birkenhead. On 23 September, Sullivan was arrested after apparently giving police a number of different accounts of his movements. It was alleged that he had spent the day drinking heavily in a pub 10 minutes from where the body was found. After losing a darts match it was said Sullivan went out armed with a crowbar before what was a chance encounter with Sindall. Sullivan was initially denied legal representation or an appropriate adult in police interview, on the grounds that officers were concerned that sensitive information might be leaked about the investigation. The court of appeal heard that Sullivan made a number of confessions and retractions during questioning. After he had access to a solicitor, Sullivan said he made the confessions up. His trial in 1987 heard evidence from dental experts that bite marks on Sindall's body could be matched to Sindall's teeth. It led to the Wolfman nickname, one of a number of infamous names for a man now known to be innocent of the crime. The retracted confessions, the bite marks and circumstantial evidence about his whereabouts helped bring a conviction and Sullivan was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years. Until Tuesday, 38 years later, he was still in a category A prison. Explaining Sullivan's old 'confessions' at the court of appeal, Jason Pitter KC said: 'The appellant was extremely vulnerable in an interrogative situation, because of his limited intellectual functioning, combined with his problems with self-expression, his disposition to acquiesce, to yield, to be influenced, manipulated and controlled and his internal pressure to speak without reflection and his tendency to engage in make-believe to an extreme extent.' Scientists now accept that bite marks on skin cannot be reliably used as identification evidence in criminal cases. The game-changing DNA sample that secured his release was only made possible by a method that first came into use in 2015. Sullivan has been reviled for most of his life. Speaking outside the court of appeal his sister, Kim Smith, said: 'Peter was called so many different names and that all needs to be squashed now because Peter was never anything of what he was being called in the first place.' Merseyside police have promised to continue searching for Sindall's real killer and called on help from the public. Det Chief Supt Karen Jaundrill said: 'If you were in the area, or had concerns about an individual at the time, let us know so our team can trace and request a DNA sample from the person you suspect, or a relative of theirs if they have perhaps passed away, or they have emigrated to another country.'
BBC News
13-05-2025
- BBC News
Who is Peter Sullivan and why was he jailed?
Peter Sullivan has been in jail for 37 years in what is believed to be the biggest miscarriage of justice in British murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Birkenhead in 1986 sparked the biggest manhunt Merseyside had ever seen. But Sullivan, now 68, and his defence team have long insisted the police got the wrong man. The BBC's archives from the mid 1980s and court documents help piece together what happened before Sullivan was jailed for life for a crime someone else committed. Who was Diane Sindall? Ms Sindall was well-known in her hometown of Seacombe in Wirral. Her family ran a well-known floristry business, and she could often be seen driving her blue van around, delivering flowers. In 1986 Ms Sindall was trying to save money to get married the following year, so worked behind the bar at the Wellington pub in Bebington, five miles south of Seacombe. She was working at the Wellington on 1 August 1986, the last night she was seen alive. What happened on the night she was murdered? Ms Sindall set off from the Wellington to drive home at about 23:45 BST. She left her van in the middle of Birkenhead after it ran out of petrol, and started walking along the busy and well-lit main route of Borough sequence of events that led to Ms Sindall's death was reconstructed by the BBC's Crimewatch a few weeks later.A taxi driver told Crimewatch that he saw a man and a woman arguing at about 00:10 on Borough Road."The fellow put his hand out towards the girl. They appeared to know each other but they were definitely arguing", he reported hearing screams between 00:30 and 02:00 - the time when Ms Sindall is thought to have encountered the man who attacked half-naked body was found in an alleyway off Borough Road by a dog walker the next had a fractured skull, facial lacerations and bruising, mutilated breasts and lacerated genitals, according to court documents seen by the was thought Ms Sindall had remained alive for some time after the attack, but she died from a brain haemorrhage thought to have been caused by multiple blows to the head.A pathologist who examined Ms Sindall's body later said in court her injuries were "the very worst" he had ever seen on a body "outside of a road traffic accident". How did the police try to catch the killer? Merseyside Police spoke to 3,000 people as part of its attack caused shock, revulsion and anxiety, especially among women and girls."Girls were afraid to be on the streets alone", said former Liverpool Echo journalist John Thompson, who covered the case at the time."Fathers, boyfriends, brothers and husbands would pick women up from work and tell them not to leave the premises until they were right outside the door," he said."There was real terror," he added, because Ms Sindall's murder was "different - it was horrific"."[There was] someone was on the streets of Merseyside who was a real danger to women, who needed to be caught".The attack led to area's first Reclaim the Night march across the River Mersey. The movement had been set up in Leeds in 1977, during Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe's killing spree, as response to police advise that women should stay indoors. "It was the sheer normality of it that was so scary, because any of us could have just run out of petrol and been walking along the road", said Josephine Wood from RASA Merseyside, a charity that supports victims of rape and sexual assault founded in the aftermath of Miss Sindall's one point, detectives were said to be considering interviewing every man in for weeks they appeared to have no leads, and no clue about how Ms Sindall had ended up in the alleyway, because nobody saw the attack take place. Why was Peter Sullivan jailed? The day after Ms Sindall's murder some of her clothes were found burning in a small fire on nearby Bidston Hill, and a passing couple told police they saw a man, running out of bushes, whom they recognised as "Pete".But they failed to pick him out of an identity witnesses to the fire contacted the police after the Crimewatch reconstruction, and their descriptions of the man they saw prompted the police to go back to was arrested for murder on 23 September after he gave officers a number of "completely different" accounts of his next day, court documents show Sullivan broke down in tears under questioning and "confessed" to the withdrew the apparent confession later that day, but reinstated it soon had not been given access to legal advice by that point. It had been withheld on the grounds that it would have caused a "hindrance to the enquiry".When he was given access to a solicitor on 25 September, he retracted his confessions and told police he had made them trial in 1987 was told about his apparent confessions, as well as claims from dental experts that bite marks on Ms Sindall's body could be matched to Mr Sullivan's the night Sullivan was jailed for life for murder, BBC North West Tonight reported how he stood silently in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court, while his mother broke down and screamed, and his sister fainted and had to be Sullivan was sentenced, Det Supt Tom Baxter told the BBC Sullivan "wasn't an excitable person", adding "he seemed to be a quiet sort of fellow - but what is the type of person that commit these murders?"Mr Sullivan was then condemned to be known for the rest of his life by the names he had been given by some of the tabloid newspapers - "the Beast of Birkenhead" and "the Mersey Ripper". What about the real killer? Ms Sindall's killer has not been unsuccessful appeal hearing in 2019 heard various criticisms of the police investigation and the 1987 year it was announced new forensic testing of a semen sample from the scene had revealed a DNA profile which did not match Mr Sullivan - but officers have not been able to identify the person it does February, Merseyside Police said it had reopened its investigation into Ms Sindall's murder, and had sent letters to people identified in 1986 asking them to voluntarily submit DNA samples so they could be "eliminated" from their Dr Harry Wood said his assessment of Sullivan had highlighted his "limited intellectual capacity" and "suggestibility", which he said should have led to concerns about his answers in interviews and his apparent also said that in the present day Mr Sullivan would have been accompanied by a solicitor in his interviews and probably an "appropriate adult" who would have the task of safeguarding the interests of a vulnerable dentist Prof Iain Pretty also criticised the claims made in the trial which linked bite marks to Mr Sullivan's is now renewed concern on Merseyside that a murderer has remained at large and unpunished for close to 40 years. In Birkenhead, fresh flowers and small notes are still left at a small black granite memorial to her close to the scene of the attack on Borough states Ms Sindall was murdered "because she was a woman". Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
