Anthony Walker

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Anthony Walker murdered in racial attack in Liverpool, England

Front page of The Independent newspaper, 2005-08-01

Anthony Walker (21 February 1987 – 30 July 2005) was a black A-level student from Huyton, Merseyside, England. He was murdered with an ice axe by white youths in an apparently racially motivated crime. He was 18 years old.

Prior to the assault, a hooded man in his 20s taunted Walker at a bus stop outside the "Huyton Park" pub where Walker was waiting for a bus with his white girlfriend and mixed-race male cousin. Anthony told the man they were just waiting for the bus, and then they were going, but the man directed him to "walk, nigger, walk"

The three walked away from the abuse without retaliating, but a gang of up to four men lay in wait in an ambush for them as they crossed McGoldrick Park . His girlfriend and cousin ran to get help. When they returned, they found Anthony Walker on the ground with a 2-foot long ice axe embedded in his skull from a single blow . He died at 0525 BST on Saturday 30 July 2005.

The ice axe had been aquired at least two days previous, when one of three men was seen hacking at the pub sign with the weapon.

On 30 November 2005, Michael Barton (17), the half-brother of Manchester City footballer Joey Barton, was found guilty of murdering Anthony (Barton's cousin, Paul Taylor (20), had earlier pleaded guilty to the same offence). The following day, Mr Justice Leveson passed sentence on the two men. "This was a racist attack of a type poisonous to any civilised society," he said as he ruled that Taylor, who had delivered the fatal blow, should be jailed for a minimum of 23 years and 8 months, and Barton, who had supplied the murder weapon, must serve a minimum of 17 years and 8 months behind bars.

"The terror evident in Marcus Binns and Louise Thompson proves beyond all reasonable doubt that this was not simply two groups bumping into each other," Mr Justice Leveson continued. "I am sure that the fear [the defendants] generated was deliberate and the plan was premeditated."

Early reports indicated that the police had been looking for five people who were present at the murder scene, and that Barton and Taylor had travelled abroad, taking with them £2000.00 in cash shortly after the murder.

Three more people were found guilty of helping Barton and Taylor flee to Holland 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.[1]