Release for Japan prisoner

Patrick Loughlin was imprisoned in Japan

A man who claims he was wrongly convicted of killing a man in a bar brawl while working in Japan has been released from prison.

Patrick Loughlin from Wrexham - who was working as an English teacher in Kariya - was sentenced to four years for killing a man during a fight in 1999.

Throughout his three-and-a-half year imprisonment, he has always maintained he was wrongly convicted.

He was finally released from jail on Friday.

He received support from far and wide and the manager of international pop singer Mick Hucknell raised thousands of pounds to pay his legal fees.

Ian Grenfell, who looks after the lead singer of the band Simply Red, ran the New York marathon in 2001 to highlight the plight of Mr Loughlin.

It was hoped Grenfell would give the case the kind of international publicity needed to grab the attention of public opinion in Japan.

Mr Loughlin's mother Kathleen, who still lives in the family home in Penley near Wrexham, said she will only believe he has been released when he is back in north Wales.

She claims her son was supposed to have been released on 7 August but the Japanese authorities failed to let him leave.

Kathleen Loughlin is awaiting her son's release

Along with her husband Robert, Mrs Loughlin has led an intensive campaign to free her son.

She enlisted the support of Glenys Kinnock and her fellow Wales MEP Eluned Morgan.

The politicians claimed he was wrongly convicted after his Japanese lawyer, who could not speak English, entered a guilty plea on his behalf.

His appeal against the conviction was turned down in October 2001 by the Japanese Supreme Court.

In September 2001 his parents met Foreign Office Minister Baroness Amos to press his case.

They were joined by Clwyd South MP Martyn Jones, a long time supporter of his constituent.

In 2002 Mr Jones' hopes of a legal deal securing the release of Mr Loughlin were dashed.

The politician hoped Japan would have signed up to a European convention on prisoner transfers - allowing the Wrexham man to serve the rest of his sentence in the UK.

It was hoped the country, which jointly hosted the World Cup with South Korea, would have bowed to political pressure.

Kathleen Loughlin has always alleged her son was beaten by prison guards when he was kept at the Nagoya Detention Centre before he started his sentence.