By Daniel Foggo and Bojan Pancevski

The Sunday Times

THE decision by Jack Straw to free a Liverpool fan convicted of attempted murder in Bulgaria has been thrown into doubt by serious flaws in another man's "confession" to the crime.

Michael Shields was released this month after the justice secretary issued a royal pardon, declaring that oral and written confessions by Graham Sankey, another fan, had convinced him that Shields was "morally and technically innocent".

Now, however, it has emerged that Sankey told his lawyers when he confessed that he was doing so only because he was in fear of his life after threats from supporters of Shields, 22.

As recently as July, Straw said he was not minded to pardon Shields, so his turnaround was greeted with joy on Merseyside. It also brought relief for Shields's family, whose frustration had led them to talk of standing for parliament against Straw and Maria Eagle, the justice minister and MP for Liverpool Garston.

There is now strong evidence that Sankey's signed confession admitting to attacking a Bulgarian waiter, Martin Georgiev, four years ago, was worthless. The Sunday Times has established that:

When drawing up his "confession", Sankey told his solicitor, David Kirwan, that he was in fear of his life because of threats of violence from supporters of Shields if he did not publicly admit having assaulted Georgiev. Sankey's family also said they had been threatened.

Sankey never actually confessed to Kirwan that he had assaulted Georgiev. Instead, the lawyer drew up a deliberately ambiguous "confession" to placate those pursuing him. It purposely did not match the facts of the crime.

Shields's lawyer in Bulgaria said that although he believed in his innocence, he had received a fair trial and the evidence against him was "overwhelming".

Georgiev confirmed he had "never seen Graham Sankey before in my life other than in pictures" and was certain it was Shields who attacked him.

Georgiev was assaulted while trying to defuse a fight between football fans returning from Istanbul after Liverpool's victory in the Champions League in May 2005. As bottles were thrown around him, Georgiev was punched to the ground and set upon by a group of English fans.

Several witnesses later went on to identify Michael Shields as the man who lifted an 8½lb slab and brought it crashing down on Georgiev's head. The father of two, then 25, lost a 3in section of his skull. Four years on he is still suffering from the effects of his injury and is about to undergo a third operation.

Anthony Wilson and Bradley Thompson, who had been staying in the room next to Shields and his friends at the Crystal hotel in Varna, were both convicted of hooliganism and given suspended sentences.

Sankey, a friend of Wilson and Thompson, was also briefly detained by police, but his dark hair did not match the attacker's description.

Shields, however, was repeatedly picked out in identity parades, including by Georgiev, as the man with the stone slab. Later, his lawyers claimed he had been handcuffed to a radiator, allowing witnesses to see him before the identity parades and that his face had been in local media.

Halfway through the trial, however, Sankey, who had long since returned to Merseyside, issued a startling confession through Kirwan. He said that he had thrown a brick towards some running men and, despite the obvious discrepancies between his version and the facts of the case, he accepted that he "must have caused the serious injury to Mr Georgiev".

The "confession" was seized on by the Shields family and much of the media and thrust before the Bulgarian court, but the judge was unimpressed.

Shields was sentenced to 15 years, later reduced to 10 years, and in 2006 he was returned to Britain to serve the remainder of his term.

When Straw issued his pardon - under an obscure 26-year-old convention - it appeared the Shields family had overcome a serious injustice.

But a source close to the case has now revealed that Sankey was under great duress when he made his "admission".

The source said: "When Sankey turned up to speak with Kirwan he was absolutely terrified. He was with his family and they just said they had received serious threats on members of the family and Graham.

"All Kirwan got was, ‘I want to say something in public because I am under great pressure, I am in fear of my life.'

"Kirwan didn't get a confession out of him. Kirwan was not at all happy that Sankey was really admitting it. So he took it upon himself to make Sankey's statement ambiguous. He did it like that so he could then tear it to pieces if necessary later. It was not worth the paper it was written on."

The "confession" was issued on July 23, 2005, a day after Sankey had also apparently confessed to Shields's sister Melissa and his aunt, Lin Graney, in person.

When, on August 28 this year, the Shields family told Straw about Sankey's oral confession to the family, the justice secretary treated it as a "eureka moment", according to Joe Anderson, the leader of the Labour opposition on Liverpool city council, who was present.

However, whether or not Straw was aware of it, the circumstances of the "oral confession" had been part of the Shields's appeal case for years.

Before the pardon was announced, local reports stated that Straw, the MP for Blackburn, and a junior minister - Maria Eagle - faced potential challenges in the general election from Shields's parents, who enjoy great support on Merseyside.

Anderson added that Shields's father brought up the subject on August 28. "He told Jack Straw it was nonsense," said Anderson. "And Straw said, ‘Look, don't worry about it. I don't particularly take any notice about these things'." Last week Shields's father said light-hearted talk about standing had been taken out of context by the media.

Borislav Jelyazkov, the lawyer who represented Shields in Bulgaria, said: "The Bulgarian court acted appropriately - given the overwhelming evidence coming from the various testimonies the judges had no choice but to convict him."

Georgiev said: "There is no doubt in my mind that Michael Shields was the man who assaulted me. I have seen pictures of Graham Sankey but I couldn't recognise him as someone I have seen in real life."

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