Murder of Anthony Walker

Anthony Walker spent the evening of 29 July 2005 at home with his girlfriend, Louise Thompson, babysitting his nephew. At 11 p.m., the couple left the house and walked to the bus stop along with Walker's cousin Marcus Binns. There, they encountered Michael Barton, who shouted racial abuse at Walker and Binns. As Walker, Thompson and Binns walked to another bus stop, near McGoldrick Park, Barton and his old friend Paul Taylor followed them in a car and drove to the park, ambushing them when they reached it. Binns and Thompson managed to escape and ran away to get help, while Walker was fatally wounded when Taylor hit him in the head with an ice axe, which got lodged in his skull and left him brain dead. He was taken to Whiston Hospital and then to the Walton Centre, where he died at 5:25 a.m.[2][3]

By the next morning, Barton and Taylor had fled to Amsterdam. When police named them as suspects, Barton's brother, footballer Joey Barton, appealed for them to return to the UK and turn themselves in. They flew back to Liverpool on 3 August and were arrested and charged with Walker's murder.[3] Their trial took place between November and December, and on 1 December, they were convicted of the murder. Passing life sentences on Taylor and Barton, with minimum terms of 23 years and eight months for Taylor and 17 years and eight months for Barton, Lord Justice Leveson said that the cousins had perpetrated a "terrifying ambush" and a "racist attack of a type poisonous to any civilised society".[4]

In April 2006, it was reported that Barton had been attacked by fellow inmates at Moorland Closed Prison near Doncaster, South Yorkshire.[5]

Three other people were later found guilty of helping Barton and Taylor flee to the Netherlands before their eventual arrest. On 10 May 2006, Robert Williams was convicted of providing money and booking a hotel room for the pair. He was sentenced to two years and four months. Paul Morson was sentenced to 11 months in prison for providing a getaway car. Tracy Garner admitted assisting an offender and received an 11-month suspended sentence and 50 hours of community service.[6]

Although they drew frequent comparisons, many denied that there were similarities between Walker's killing and that of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. One such critic was Labour MP Edward O'Hara, who stated that, although there was a "certain surface comparison", Walker's killing was "random, exceptional and representative of absolutely nothing".[7]

Walker's mother explained her attitude towards her son's killers, saying "I have to forgive them. I can't feel anger and hatred, because that is what killed my son". However, Walker's girlfriend Louise, who was present on the night of his murder, said she never would forgive them adding, "I hate them for what they have done. Anthony and I shared something special. Now he has been taken away from me by those two evil young men. I still feel that he (Anthony Walker) is around. Yesterday, I sent Anthony a text and just told him he (Barton) had been found guilty. It seemed the natural thing to do."[8]

Walker's murder and the subsequent trial of the perpetrators received a huge amount of media coverage in the UK, with a media pack congregating at John Lennon Airport awaiting the return of the accused.[9] His funeral was broadcast live on television and the BBC ran a special Real Story programme about the crime.

On 2 April 2008, the Crown Prosecution Service announced a legal scholarship in Walker's memory. The scheme will offer one place in CPS Merseyside to a trainee solicitor who wants to become a fully fledged solicitor or barrister. It is open to any black or ethnic minority person who has secured or intends to apply for a place to study the LPC or BPTC full-time.[10]