Last updated at 11:25, Thursday, 08 January 2009

SUPPORTERS of Haverigg prisoner Michael Shields will urge Prime Minister Gordon Brown to pardon him when the cabinet meets in Liverpool this week.

They will ask him to press justice minister Jack Straw to free Michael from his 15-year sentence for attempted murder.

The move follows a high court ruling that the government has the power to release the engineering student from Edge Hill.

Michael is now entering the fourth year of his sentence for an attack on a barman in Bulgaria after Liverpool FC’s 2005 Champions League final victory.

Free Michael Shields campaign spokesman and leader of the city Labour group, Councillor Joe Anderson, said he would bring up the matter when members of the party gather after the planned Cabinet meeting.

He said he visited Michael in prison on Friday, and that the 22-year-old was in good spirits after the December 4 judicial review.

He said he and other campaigners would remind the PM of the “volume of evidence” that suggested Michael was the victim of a “miscarriage of justice”.

Cllr Anderson said: “Michael’s mum Marie has met the prime minister’s wife Sarah Brown. We would remind him of that and ask that he speeds up the process of Michael’s release.”

He said Michael, who is due to be moved from category C Haverigg prison in Cumbria to a more open category D facility, is soon expected to be given weekend leave and day release.

If Michael does not receive a pardon he will remain a prisoner until at least May 2010.

First published at 11:50, Tuesday, 06 January 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk