Murder of Anthony Walker

Anthony Delano Walker was an 18-year-old Black British student of Jamaican descent, in his second year of A-levels, living in Huyton, Merseyside with his parents Gee and Steve Walker and his siblings. The Walker family were among the first Black families to settle in Huyton, and the children reportedly experienced racial name-calling at both primary and secondary school.

On the night of 29 July 2005, Walker spent the evening at home with his girlfriend, Louise Thompson, babysitting his nephew. At 11 p.m., the couple left the house and walked to a bus stop together with Walker's cousin, Marcus Binns. There they encountered 17-year-old Michael Barton, who threatened to stab Walker and Binns. As the group moved to another bus stop near McGoldrick Park, Barton and his friend Paul Taylor, 20, followed them by car and ambushed them at the park. Binns and Thompson escaped and ran to get help, but Walker was struck in the head with an ice axe wielded by Taylor. The axe lodged in his skull, causing brain death. He was taken first to Whiston Hospital and then to the Walton Centre, where he died at 5:25 a.m. on 30 July 2005.

By the following morning, Barton and Taylor had fled to Amsterdam. After police named them as suspects, Barton's brother, footballer Joey Barton, publicly appealed for them to return to the UK and turn themselves in. The pair flew back to Liverpool on 3 August 2005 and were arrested and charged with murder.

The trial took place between November and December 2005. On 1 December 2005, Taylor and Barton were convicted of Walker's murder. Taylor had admitted the murder shortly before the trial began. Lord Justice Leveson, passing life sentences, described the crime as a "terrifying ambush" and a "racist attack of a type poisonous to any civilised society." Taylor received a minimum term of 23 years and eight months, while Barton received a minimum term of 17 years and eight months; Barton's sentence was later reduced by eight months in 2016 in recognition of improvements in his behaviour, and he was released from prison in September 2022 after serving 17 years.

Three further individuals were later convicted for assisting Barton and Taylor's flight to the Netherlands: Robert Williams, convicted of providing money and booking a hotel room, was sentenced to two years and four months; Paul Morson received 11 months for providing a getaway car; and Tracy Garner received an 11-month suspended sentence with 50 hours of community service after admitting assisting an offender.

After the trial, racist graffiti was left at the scene of the murder, and in April 2006 it was reported that Barton had been attacked by fellow inmates at Moorland Closed Prison in South Yorkshire. Walker's mother Gee Walker publicly stated her decision to forgive her son's killers, while his girlfriend Louise Thompson said she would never forgive them. The case drew widespread UK media coverage and public discussion, including comparisons—both drawn and disputed—with the 1993 killing of Stephen Lawrence.