Justice Secretary Jack Straw did a Sherlock Holmes-style piece of detective work to find the overlooked evidence that set Michael Shields free, it has emerged.
The man who led the campaign to free Liverpool soccer fan Michael has revealed the dramatic moments that set Jack Straw on the detective trail.
Mr Straw granted the a pardon to Michael and said new "corroborative evidence" had led him to conclude that the 22-year old is "morally and technically innocent".
In his statement Mr Straw said that the deciding factor was when he learned that members of the Shields' family had personally heard Graham Sankey confess to the crime.
And now campaigner Joe Anderson has revealed that it was Michael's sister Melissa, 26, who provided the vital evidence that changed Jack Straw's mind.
The crucial meeting between Mr Straw and Melissa happened Blackburn Town Hall on Friday 28th August.
Michael's parents Michael Shields snr and Maria and other supporters had arranged a meeting with Mr Straw to make a final submission on the case.
Joe Anderson told how he too attending the meeting while Melissa was outside holding a banner and handing-out leaflets.
Leader of the opposition Labour group on Liverpool City Council, Mr Anderson said: "It was Melissa's evidence that was the vital element and swung it with Jack Straw.
"We had told him again about the evidence of the confession from Graham Sankey and we told him about the day on the 22nd July 2005 that the confession was made.
"When we told him that Melissa and her aunt Lyn Graney had been there and saw Sankey break down and make the confession his face lit-up.
"He asked for Melissa to come in and he spoke to her about what had happened.
"She told him how she went to Sankey's home and was talking to him when his own mother came in, held her head in her hands and said to him 'Oh my God! It was you wasn't it?"
"Melissa told Mr Straw how Sankey broke down in tears at that stage and confessed to his own mother that he was responsible for the murderous attack on Martin Georgiev.
"It was Melissa who put Sankey in touch with a solicitor that day and he made a formal confession that he signed in front of lawyers that very day.
"Mr Straw was struck by this and it was like a Sherlock Holmes moment where he realised he had the missing evidence he needed."
Mr Anderson revealed that Mr Straw then asked Det Chief Supt Brain McNeil of Merseyside Police to carry out further investigations into the "corroborative evidence" that had been overlooked in the case.
Added Mr Anderson: "In fact we had included this evidence about Sankey's confession in files that were submitted in the case two years ago.
"At that was at a time it was dismissed as 'hearsay' and Jack Straw was being advised that he did not have legal authority to grant a free pardon.
"It seems that this corroboration had been overlooked in the most recent considerations and Jack Straw realised that it was vital to the process that led him to grant a pardon.
"It goes to show that it was the determination of the Shields family never to give-up on proving Mike's innocence produced the correct result in the end."
In his statement granting the pardon to Michael Shields, Jack Straw said: "Since the 28th August meeting in my constituency further inquiries, including by the Merseyside Police, have been made at my request into the events of 22 July 2005.
"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.
"This in my view profoundly changed the credibility of the various accounts of what actually happened in this case.
"Whether or not this new evidence would have been admissible at Mr Shields' trial in Bulgaria, it is highly relevant to my consideration of Mr Shields' application for a pardon.
"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.
"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.
"It is clear that the victim in this case, Mr Martin Georgiev, was subjected to a brutal and vicious attack.
"It is not for me to say who was responsible for this disgraceful assault. That is a matter for the criminal courts in Bulgaria.
"The new evidence which has emerged from the meeting with Mr Shields’ parents and from Merseyside Police’s subsequent inquiries has been passed to the Bulgarian authorities by the British Ambassador in Sofia."
It also emerged yesterday that Merseyside Police have a record of a man - thought to be Graham Sankey - going into a police station on 22nd July 2005 to ask about the likelihood that he could extradited to Bulgaria if he made a confession in the UK.
In fact Sankey could have been extradited, but the Bulgarian government declined to request his extradition.
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