What Happened When Michael Shields Was Arrested?

When arresting Michael, police officers ordered him to put a white T Shirt on before taking him away. Eye witnesses to the attack identified the assailant as wearing white. The police first drove Michael to Big Ben's café, the scene of the attack, in a marked police car. One of the arresting officers got out to speak to a group of witnesses, with Michael in full view of all of them, cringing with fear in the back of the car.

On arrival at the station, the teenager from Wavertree was handcuffed to a radiator for a whole night in the central lobby, in full public view. The other suspects initially arrested, including Sankey, were kept in separate cells.

Next came the identity parade, consisting of Michael wearing the white T-shirt (despite sound evidence that he had been wearing beige on the night of the attack) and four other Bulgarian men in jumpers, despite onlookers being convinced that it was a British man who carried out the attack. He was identified by several witnesses, who were reportedly placed in a room and allowed to confer. But the witnesses, including the victim himself, were inconsistent over whether Michael was the first assailant or the second.