What Opposition Has The Campaign To Free Michael Shields Encountered?

Despite the huge and public support for Michael, not everyone believes he is innocent. The Michael Shields Campaign Office, which is staffed on a voluntary basis by friends and family of the Wavertree teenager, occasionally gets hate mail from people who think he is as guilty as sin.

One received by the Campaign in April read: "Have you even bothered to look at ALL the evidence? It is so glaringly obvious that he did it its untrue. Just let him serve his rightful punishment for the disgusting act he committed." Another sent by "Sam" from Bury said: "I hope that guilty c**t is enjoying his ring of fire. Fry Michael Shields." A Manchester City fan called 'Tamsen' simply wrote, "Die u murdering b*****d." But the e-mails are few and far between.

A petition submitted in February by a Liverpool fan on the internet, which is ridden with spelling mistakes, claims that "there is a large proportion of people living in Merseyside who believe that Michael Shields, DID actually commit the crime he has been imprisoned for." It states that the undersigned would not want Shields walking the streets of Liverpool nor continue blackening the name of Liverpool FC. Yet the petition has but one signature.