UK football hooligan Michael Shields has spent his first night at home since being jailed in Bulgaria in 2005. The 22-year-old is serving a 10-year sentence for the attempted murder of Bulgarian barman, Martin Georgiev, in May 2005, the BBC reported Wednesday.

Shields was transferred from Bulgaria to the UK in 2006 and is serving his sentence at Thorn Cross Prison in Warrington, near Liverpool.

His father, also called Michael, said he had enjoyed an emotional return to his home at Edge Hill, Liverpool, last month.

Shields' father said: "He had two nights at home which he thoroughly enjoyed and it was great to see him in his own room - which is where he should have been sleeping for the last three-and-a-half years."

Shields has always protested he did not drop a paving slab on the head of barman Georgiev, almost killing him, near the Black Sea city of Varna in May 2005.

At one point another Liverpool fan, who was staying in the same hotel as Shields, signed a confession admitting that he carried out the attack, but he later retracted it.

High Court judges ruled in December that UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw has the power to issue a pardon, which he is still considering.

Shields' next temporary release is expected to be in March 2009.

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