Anthony Delano Walker (21 February 1987 – 30 July 2005) was a Black British student of Jamaican descent who was murdered with an ice axe by Michael Barton (brother of footballer Joey Barton) and Barton's cousin Paul Taylor, in an unprovoked racist attack on the night of 29 July 2005 in Huyton, Merseyside. Walker was eighteen years old and was in his second year of A-levels. He lived with his parents, Gee Walker and Steve Walker, his two sisters and one brother. Background The Walker family were one of the first black families to live in Huyton, and the children experienced racial name-calling at both primary and secondary school. Both Walker and Taylor attended Knowsley Hey High School. Taylor and Barton had a reputation for racially abusing others. Taylor had prior convictions for battery, and burglary, and at the time of the crime was on early release from a young offenders' centre. Murder 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, aged 17, who threatened to stab Walker and Binns. As Walker, Thompson and Binns walked to another bus stop, near McGoldrick Park, Barton and his friend Paul Taylor, aged 20, 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 struck him in the head with an ice axe, which lodged in his skull, causing brain death. He was taken to Whiston Hospital and then to the Walton Centre, where he died at 5:25 a.m. 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. Trial The trial took place between November and December 2005, and on 1 December, Taylor and Barton were convicted of the murder. Passing life sentences, with minimum terms of 23 years and eight months for Taylor, who had admitted the murder just before the trial, and 17 years and eight months for Barton,