 MICHAEL Shields is to be moved to a new prison in the Bulgarian capital before his make-or-break final appeal. The 19-year-old, from Wavertree, will be transferred to a larger prison in Sofia ahead of a supreme court appeal against his 15-year sentence in January. His legal team hope new evidence revealed by the ECHO could lead to a retrial or the extradition of the man who has admitted the attack Michael was accused of carrying out. Michael has always insisted he did not slam a paving stone over barman Martin Georgiev's head in the Golden Sands resort in May. He was convicted and sentenced despite Graham Sankey signing a confession and has spent the last eight months in Varna prison, on the Black Sea coast. On Monday, the ECHO revealed how a new witness has come forward to describe how he saw Sankey attack Mr Georgiev. His statement has been signed, approved by the British government and sent to the Bulgarian courts. Today, his family and campaign team welcomed the move as they continued to lobby the government for support. City labour leader Joe Anderson said: "It means Michael will be near to where the next legal action is going to take place. "We really hope that this new evidence could make the Bulgarian prosecutors consider a retrial or even just the straight extradition of Sankey." Merseyside Euro MP Arlene McCarthy has already claimed that breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights have occurred over the access Michael's legal team have had to potential evidence during his case. And Michael's Riverside MP Louise Ellman won an adjournment to discuss Michael's legal fight in the house of commons. Mrs McCarthy his week made a formal complaint about the appeal procedure to European President Joseph Borrell. | 
