I AM e-mailing to protest, along with the rest of the British public, about how disgusted I am with regards to the treatment of Mr Michael Shields. Mr Shields is clearly innocent of any wrongdoing following the public confession from Mr Graham Sankey.
While I agree somebody needs to be held to account for what was a brutal attack on an innocent Bulgarian citizen, Mr Martin Georgiev, I do not see how locking up an innocent man for 15 years is justified when clearly the Bulgarian judicial system has concentrated on looking for a scapegoat rather than the “ACTUAL” guilty party.
Locking an innocent man away for 15 years is a horrific crime in itself,and the Bulgarian Government needs to take a long hard look at this catastrophic miscarriage of justice and rectify it immediately.
The events that have followed the 25th of May 2005 will be with Michael Shields for the rest of his life, that is a tragedy in itself, for the sake of an innocent man don’t let this tragedy continue any longer.

Yours sincerely
– Rob Coleman
 
IF Michael is innocent then he was set up by Sankey and his friends. On the other hand why did Sankey confess that he did it? It makes no sense to me.
Anyway, it is either him or Shields so I cannot see how Shields could be freed before Sankey is in prison. I think the truth is going to come out and if Michael is really innocent then he will be freed. Yet there is no hope for the family of the Brazilian lad who was shot in London last week.
– Guest

I AM sorry to hear about Michael Shield’s sentence.
The truth of the matter is that no Bulgarian would ever be sentenced in this country to such a long sentence for attempted murder. Most murderers either get off scot free – look at the known criminals who are blatantly on the streets due to ‘lack of evidence’ – or else get fairly light sentences. A recent case involved a Bulgarian who stabbed a teenager 18 times to death and was given 2 year suspended sentence which meant he was able to fly to America because the judge had not bothered notifying the authorities that he was banned from leaving the country. There have been many such cases and that is the real tragedy, whether Michael Shields is guilty or not. The sentence is not in line with any other sentencing by the Bulgarian courts, and this is presumably because this man is a foreigner and has no means of ‘influencing’ the court decision. Not to mention the speed with which this case came to court, again a record for this country.
– Geezer

I didn’t see the crime happen so I can’t say if it was Sankey or if it was Michael (and Sankey is lying)
But I did see the group earlier in the night and a message needs to be sent to hooligans. If you were there as part of that group and are reading this now, YOU are the ones responsible.
If you were not in Golden Sands that night and are telling others that they don’t know the case, then you are an fool. You have no doubt been fed the group’s version of events.
It was up to that group to sort it out on that night but you were all to annihilated to bother. Now look what you have done.
It is up to the Liverpool supporters who are supposed to never let each other walk alone to get Sankey and make him go back to Bulgaria and admit to them that it was him in court. This is the only way the Bulgarians can be expected to release Shields.
Let’s get Sankey to Bulgaria and get poor innocent Michael who wouldn’t hurt a fly Shields back home.

– Hesh

INSTEAD of people coming on here going on about a boycott of Bulgarian goods and travel, why not spend the time and effort posting on Liverpool forums to demand Sankey goes over there to face the music?
Never Walk Alone? Well, Sankey has let his fellow fan walk alone if he truly was guilty, and once again, Liverpool FC fans cause problems on a European away trip. Surprise Surprise.

These letters were taken from the sofiaecho.com forum