The UK Home Office has said it would allow jailed Liverpool fan Michael Shields to take a lie detector test, liverpoolecho reported on November 15.

"It’s a progressive, forward-thinking decision and one which deserves to be applauded," the newspaper said.

The Shields family had campaigned hard to win a pardon and there had been a feeling that Shields insistence that he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice had been brushed under the carpet by authorities. The newspaper said Shield was determined to take this chance to prove his innocence.

One day earlier, the Liverpoolecho reported that in a letter to city Labour leader Joe Anderson, Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov has pointed out that Bulgaria and the UK were signatories to a convention of prison transfers which would allow courts in either country to grant pardons.

No date for when the lie detector test would be taken was given.