Bulgaria refuses Shields pardon

The 21-year-old was moved to an adult prison last month

The president of Bulgaria has refused to grant a pardon to jailed Liverpool fan Michael Shields.

The 21-year-old is serving a 10-year sentence, reduced from 15 years on appeal, for the attempted murder of a barman in Bulgaria in 2005.

President Georgi Parvanov refused to pardon Shields during a meeting with British MEP Arlene McCarthy.

He said he would not advise a pardon and expressed his confidence in the Bulgarian judicial system.

A large rock or paving slab was dropped on the head of barman Martin Georgiev on the night of Liverpool's Champions League victory in Istanbul in May 2005.

Possible British pardon

Shields, from Edge Hill In Liverpool, was found guilty in a court in Bulgaria two months later.

He was transferred back to Britain in 2006 and recently took a lie detector test at Garth Prison in Lancashire, where he is currently serving his sentence, in an attempt to prove his innocence.

In November, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, Louise Ellman, called for a judicial investigation into the case.

In a parliamentary debate she said she had a new witness statement that claimed two other people were responsible for the attack.

In November, a letter from the Bulgarian government to a Liverpool councillor suggested the British government may be able to grant Shields a pardon - if a review found him innocent - as he is now serving his sentence in an English jail.