Mum of teen killed by axe-wielding racists wants to ask his killers one question

The mother of Anthony Walker - who was brutally murdered in a racist attack 20 years ago - has said she is “here now” if his killers want to talk.

Anthony, 18, was chased from a bus stop in Huyton, Merseyside, before being attacked with an ice axe and left to die at a park entrance. In the months after her son’s killing, Dr Gee Walker spoke about her agonising grief saying it felt as “if someone had stuck a knife in you”.

Cousins Paul Taylor and Michael Barton - the brother of ex-footballer Joey - who were aged 20 and 17 at the time, were convicted of his murder. Dr Walker has previously revealed Taylor tried to make contact with her - but she had not been ready to meet him.

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But now, two decades after the horrific murder, on 30 July 2005, she said her son's killers are the only people who can tell her why they murdered him. She said: ‘I'm here if he wants to, but my children and family are really against it. They actually say ‘once a liar, they will always be a liar’. They say I might not get what I'm looking for - the truth.

“But to me, they [Taylor and Barton] were the last ones who’d seen my son alive, so I'd really like to ask them what happened, and why did you do it to my son? I still feel as if for me, as a mum, I would like to know. Maybe it would help me to find out where this hate came from - because it's got to come from somewhere. So I was hoping I would get some answers.”

Taylor was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years and eight months, while Barton was jailed for 17 years and eight months in December 2005.

Dr Walker said “the pain is still there” 20 years on. “I've got so many scars. The grief seems like it's never-ending because it's just on a loop. It goes round and round - no matter how much we try to get away from it, we can't.”

She takes comfort from the outpouring of support and love she received in the wake of Anthony's death, saying: “I don't know how to thank the people of Liverpool.

“Someone asked me the other day ‘do you think the response to Anthony being killed would have been the same if it was anywhere else?” and, without a breath, I said, ‘Liverpool people, they are a special breed’. I'm so thankful for the support that keeps us upright today.”

Dr Walker, who was made an MBE for services to diversity and racial injustice in 2024, has devoted her life to tackling racism in her son’s memory.

The Anthony Walker Foundation was set up to tackle racism, hate crime and discrimination, by providing educational opportunities and victim support services, while promoting equality and inclusion for all.

She said: “I'll be walking down the street and people will say ‘thank you Mrs Walker - you don’t know me, but I know you. Thank you for what you're doing for my child’.

“Can you imagine, if Anthony has done so much in death, how much, had he lived, he would have done in life?”