This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

Michael Shields, the Liverpool football fan pardoned and released from prison today, has spoken of the "living hell" of his four years in custody.

In a statement read out on his behalf by James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, he said the last four years "have been the hardest four years of my life … they have been a living hell".

Shields, who was convicted of attempted murder in Bulgaria in 2005, has always maintained his innocence.

He walked free from prison today after being pardoned by the justice secretary, Jack Straw.

Flanked by his lawyers, politicians and the bishop, and wearing a Liverpool FC T-shirt, Shields looked on as Jones read the statement to the press.

In it, Shields told of the "battle" he now faces to "build an ordinary life".

"I was just 18 when I was arrested. I'm now 22 and face having to rebuild my life which was shattered by the failure of two legal systems, one here in the UK and one in Bulgaria," the statement said.

"Today is a happy day for me, but one of mixed emotions too. I am a free man, yes, but it should not have come to this.

"I now face a hard battle to adjust to normality, to find a job, to resume friendships. To build an ordinary life."

Shields said he felt sympathy for Martin Georgiev, the man attacked in Bulgaria. He said that, like him, Georgiev had been "denied justice".

"I would like to extend my sympathy to the family of Martin Georgiev, who was the innocent victim of an unprovoked attack," he said.

"He and his family, like me and mine, have been denied justice for four long years."

He said his priority was "to spend time with my loved ones, to slowly begin to plan for a future as an innocent man".

Shields spoke only once during the press conference, when he briefly thanked his supporters.

"I would like to say a massive thank you to all those people out there – including Liverpool and Everton football fans – who have supported me and my family over the last four years by writing letters, by protesting, by marching," he said.

"Your voices were heard. Thanks to you, I knew I would never walk alone. Thank you."

Shields – said to be "ecstatic" when told of his impending release – smiled and gave a thumbs up to journalists as he was collected by his parents, Marie and Michael, from the Thorn Cross young offenders' institution in Warrington, Cheshire, earlier today.

His release came after Straw said he had concluded "that Michael Shields is telling the truth when he says he is innocent" and had "recommended to her majesty the Queen that he should be granted a free pardon".

Shields was jailed for 15 years after being found guilty of attacking Georgiev on 30 May 2005.

The 22-year-old had been in Bulgaria as he travelled home from Istanbul, where he had watched Liverpool win the 2005 Champions League.

In 2006 he was allowed to return to Britain to serve the remainder of his sentence, which was cut to 10 years on appeal.

In a statement, Straw said "important new evidence came to light" when he met Shields' parents at Blackburn town hall on 28 August.

"At this meeting, following a series of questions which I put to the family, I was told for the first time about a visit by two members of the Shields family to the home of a man alleged to be responsible for the crime for which Michael Shields was jailed," the statement said.

"I was told that, in the course of the visit, that man made an oral confession to the crime in front of several other people.

"This episode, I was told, happened on 22 July 2005, a day after the start of Mr Shields' trial in Bulgaria."

Straw said further inquiries had been made since the August meeting, including by Merseyside police. They led to more information being uncovered.

"I will not set out in this statement all the evidence that has come to light over the last two weeks, but suffice it to say that there is very good reason to believe I was being told the truth," Straw said.

"This, in my view, profoundly changed the credibility of the various accounts of what actually happened in this case."

Shields insisted he had been asleep in his hotel room at the time of the attack.

His solicitor, John Wheate, said: "His parents spoke to Jack Straw earlier this morning, and I have spoken to Michael myself.

"At first he couldn't believe it after all these years and knockbacks. But now he is absolutely ecstatic, and so are his family."

Louise Ellman, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, who has been campaigning for Shields' release since his conviction, said it was "a day for celebration".

"I am overjoyed at Jack Straw's decision," she said. "Michael has suffered a gross miscarriage of justice, incarcerated for four years for a crime he did not commit and to which another man has confessed."

In December 2008 two high court judges ruled that it was within the justice secretary's power to pardon Michael Shields – but Straw refused to do so in July.

Today Straw said the oral confession had not been contained in the initial bid to pardon Shields, and that the importance of certain information "had not been fully appreciated".

"No reference to the events which took place on 22 July 2005 was contained in any of the formal written representations I received either before or after I made my provisional decision on 2 July," the said.

"Mr Shields' current solicitors have told us that they did not know about them, and their potential significance had not been fully appreciated by those who had been made aware of them."

The apparent confession of another man in July 2005 was widely reported at the time, but the confession was ruled inadmissible at the trial in Bulgaria and was later retracted.