Lauren Hirst
BBC News, Merseyside
BBC
Dr Walker says families of victims are “sentenced to a life of pain”
Twenty years on from the killing of her son in a racist attack, mother of Anthony Walker says 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.
It was a murder that sparked widespread revulsion and condemnation.
In the months after her son’s killing, Dr Gee Walker spoke openly about the agonising grief which she said felt as “if someone had stuck a knife in you”.
Anthony was in the second year of his A-levels when he was killed.
Cousins Paul Taylor and Michael Barton, who were aged 20 and 17 at the time, were later convicted of his murder.
Taylor was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years and eight months, while Barton – the brother of ex-footballer Joey Barton – was jailed for 17 years and eight months in December 2005.
Dr Walker previously revealed how Taylor had tried to make contact with her – but she had not been ready to meet him at the time.
Exactly two decades after his murder, on 30 July 2005, she says how her son’s killers are the only people who can tell her why they murdered him.
“I’m here if he wants to,” she says now, “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.
Family handout
Anthony Walker was attacked with an ice axe in a park on Merseyside
“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.”
Time is no healer for Dr Walker as her heart break is still visable in how she talks.
“Now I feel as if I’ve been stitched… back together – but the pain’s still there,” says Dr Walker.
“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.”
Family handout
Anthony Walker, at the age of 10
While her grief remains a stark reality, Dr Walker takes some comfort from the outpouring of support and love she received in the wake of Anthony’s death – in particular from the people of Liverpool.
“I don’t know how to thank the people of Liverpool,” she says.
“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.
PA Media
Dr Walker was made an MBE by the Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace in April 2024
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.
“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,'” she says.
It serves as her son’s legacy, but also as a reminder of what his life could have been.
“Can you imagine – if Anthony has done so much in death, how much, had he lived, he would have done in life?” she asks.
You can watch the interview with Dr Walker on BBC North West Tonight at 18:30 BST or on BBC iPlayer on Wednesday 30 July 2025.
