British football fan Michael Shields, who was sentenced in Bulgaria for the attempted murder of a barman, has taken a lie detector test at Garth Prison in Preston, where he is being held.

The 21-year-old Shields, was convicted for the attempted murder of bartender Martin Georgiev in the Golden Sands resort in May 2005 but earlier this year he returned to Britain to complete his sentence.

Organised by his lawyers and backed by Liverpool's Labour group leader Councillor Joe Anderson, the lie detector test is a further attempt to clear his name and is believed to be crucial in the Shields' battle to win a pardon.

"I'm confident this young man is innocent and shouldn't be in jail and I've said that for two and a half years," Mr Anderson said as cited by BBC.

Shields insists he was asleep in bed when a concrete slab was dropped on Martin Georgiev's head in a Bulgarian pub. Another Liverpool fan Graham Sankey, 20, later confessed to the crime but refused to come back to Bulgaria and give evidence and subsequently retracted his confession.

Last month Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov surprisingly hinted he would not object a decision to set Shields free, which is not highly improbable as the legislation in the UK is familiar with the mechanisms for conditional discharge of sentenced persons, including their release on humanitarian grounds.

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