UK Police Report Suggests Shields is Innocent

A confidential police report suggests jailed Liverpool fan Michael Shields may be innocent.

The Merseyside Police report, compiled for Justice Secretary Jack Straw, says if the case had happened in the UK, Shields may have been given an appeal, the BBC reported.

A new witness claims the attacker was not Shields, the report says. Straw has denied Shields a pardon.

Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said the police report confirmed her view that there had been a miscarriage of justice.

Shields was jailed for 15 years in Bulgaria in 2005 for the attempted murder of barman Martin Georgiev, who had a rock dropped on his head in Varna. His sentence was later reduced when he was transferred to a UK prison.

Shields, like a number of Liverpool fans, had broken the journey home from Istanbul following Liverpool FC's European Cup victory in Turkey.

In a provisional decision on Thursday, Straw was unable to conclude the 22-year-old was "morally and technically innocent", a UK Ministry of Justice spokesman said.

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