Michael Shields goes home
Feb 25 2009 by Greg O'Keeffe, Liverpool Echo
MICHAEL Shields has returned to his Liverpool home for the first time in three and a half years under new relaxed prison terms.
The 22-year-old was allowed to spend three days back with his family in Edge Hill, on temporary licence release from jail in Warrington.
Today his father Michael Snr described the emotional moment his son finally walked through the front door again since he left to watch Liverpool play in the Championâs League final in 2005.
And he told how the engineering student spent his first night back in his old bedroom after a poignant family meal.
But he insisted their ordeal is far from over, emphasising the agony of having to drive his son back to prison after the visit.
The 46-year-old window cleaner said: âIt was incredibly emotional for us all but particularly his mum. She was waiting at the front door and saw him coming round the corner of our street in the car.
âShe opened the door and put her arms around him as he walked in. Maria has been waiting for that moment a long time. We all have.
âHe ran upstairs to his room and said heâd been dreaming of doing that for years. He was in control of his emotions and stood up like a man but everyone else was in tears.
âMaria did him an English breakfast when he came downstairs and he kept saying everything was really small in the house. I told him it was just because he hadnât been back for so long.
âHe went on the laptop in the living room and was watching the Liverpool FC channel on TV. Then some of his friends came over and it was lovely to see him smiling and laughing with them. That first night he said he had a good sleep in his own bed.
âI was up early the next morning and went into his room to check on him and see if he was OK. It just felt normal for us all for the first time in ages. Then we had to take him back on the Friday afternoon and it was heart-breaking.
âAfter we dropped him back off at the jail we came home and sat in the empty house. Maria was crying and we just felt we shouldnât have had to do that. We were very low for that weekend knowing Jack Straw has the power to put an end to all this but hasnât.
âI feel like going and standing outside St Georgeâs Hall and asking why. Why Michael is still in prison. Why Jack Straw said heâd act quickly in reviewing Michaelâs case and that was in December now. Every day hurts us more.â
Michael was given temporary release from a Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon last month. He is also allowed more frequent day-release where he must remain in Warrington.
His next three-day release period is due in March.
Mr Shields said: âWhen we were driving Michael home that first day he couldnât believed how much the city had changed. We came to the top of Everton valley and he was amazed by the skyline with the wind turbines and the new Beetham tower. I think it was very strange for him.â
Today, Conservative MP and shadow home secretary Chris Grayling will visit the Shields family home to lend his support to their campaign to get a Royal Pardon for Michael.
The MP for Epsom and Ewell has written to Jack Straw asking why the review into Michaelâs case has taken so long and will ask the family what extra support he can provide in person.
Mr Grayling is also the Tory shadow minister respon- sible for Merseyside, a reprisal of the role Michael Heseltine carried out during the previous Conservative government.
City Labour leader Joe Anderson, who has campaigned for Michaelâs release since his jailing in Bulgaria in May 2005, said he has written to Jack Straw telling of his âshameâ that a Labour government is keeping âan innocent manâ in jail.
He said: âWe are entering the ninth week since the judgement was given that Jack Straw has the power to release Michael Shields.
âAs a legal man himself the Secretary of State for Justice must understand that the evidence we have provided him with casts serious doubts on the safety of the conviction.
âHe has already asked David Perry QC to look into the evidence and we can only hope he will come to the same conclusion.
âAs a senior member of the Labour party and the leader of that party in my own city I am ashamed that this Government is keeping an innocent man behind bars.
âThis Government should be less interested in the technicalities of legal arguments and more interested in no longer perpetuating a grave miscarriage of justice.
âMr Straw has said he is reluctant to interfere in the legal process in Michaelâs case, but he rightly intervened in the case of Jade Goody and Jack Tweed proving he has discretionary power to intervene on humanitarian grounds.â
An innocent behind bars: The Michael Shields ordeal so far ...
MICHAEL Shields was arrested in May 2005 after barman Martin Georgiev was attacked with a paving stone, leaving him brain damaged, just a few nights after Liverpoolâs European Cup Final victory in Istanbul.
Michael, then a teenager, have been visiting Bulgaria after watching Liverpool win the 2005 Champions League final in neighbouring Turkey.
He was initially jailed for 15 years in the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna, but was transferred to the UK in 2006. He is serving the remainder of his sentence, which was cut to 10 years on appeal, in Thorn Cross prison in Warrington.
He has always maintained his innocence and Fair Trials Abroad described his conviction - based solely on identification evidence with no supporting testimony - as a miscarriage of justice.
Another fan, Graham Sankey, signed a confession - later retracted - that he was the man responsible, but the Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Council said the new evidence did not prove anything but introduced doubt.
Bishop of Liverpool James Jones, Riverside MP Louise Ellman and Euro MP Arlene McCarthy have campaigned for the 22-year-old.
Michael has always protested his innocence and in 2007 took a polygraph test in prison.
Michaelâs parents, Michael senior and Maria have spent years campaigning for their sonâs release
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/02/25/michael-shields-goes-home-100252-23007004/3/
