Albert Walker

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For the footballer, see Albert Walker (footballer).

Albert Johnson Walker is a noted Canadian criminal currently serving a jail term for embezzlement and murder. He is noted for murdering and assuming the identity of an Englishman and posing for years as though his daughter were his wife.

Originally from Paris, Ontario, Walker, a financial planner, defrauded clients of millions of dollars. In 1990 he fled to Europe with one of his daughters, and in time became Canada's most wanted criminal and the second most wanted on Interpol.

Walker eventually made his way to Harrogate in North Yorkshire where he lived with his daughter, Sheena, who was posing as his wife. During this time, Sheena had two children, the paternity of whom has not been revealed. He changed his name to David Davis and began a business career with television repairman Ronald Platt. Platt, raised in Canada, wished to return to his home country. Walker bankrolled this trip, but claimed he needed Platt's driver's license, signature stamp and birth certificate for the business. When Platt left for Canada, initially with the intent of permanently settling there, Walker assumed his identity.

However, Platt was out of money and returned to England three years later. Walker took Platt out on a fishing trip where he murdered him and dumped his body in the sea. Two weeks later the body was discovered by a fisherman and later identified by the serial number of his Rolex watch. Walker was apprehended shortly thereafter and subsequently sentenced to life in prison for murder in 1999. (Had Walker not been convicted, the British police would have extradited him to Canada to face fraud charges.)

In 1998 a book detailing the story of Albert Walker, A Hand In The Water, by award-winning Toronto Star journalist Bill Schiller, was published by Harper Collins.

A made-for-TV movie AKA Albert Walker documenting Walker's crimes and eventual arrest was released in 2002.

A documentary detailing the crime called "Interpol Investigates - Body Double" was made by National Geographic.

On February 22, 2005, The Globe and Mail reported that Walker will be transferred to a Canadian prison, where he may face additional charges of fraud, theft and money laundering.^[1]

On July 23, 2007, Walker was sentenced in Kingston, Ontario to four years for fraud and one year concurrent for violations of the Bankruptcy Act. He is currently serving his life sentence at Kingston Penitentiary ^[2]