Racists axe black teenager to death

Tracy McVeigh and Amelia Hill
Sunday July 31, 2005
Observer

A gang of men who murdered a black teenager with an axe in an
unprovoked racist attack in a park near his home in Huyton,
Liverpool, were being hunted by police last night.

Anthony Walker, an 18-year-old sixth form college student,
was killed by a single blow delivered with such force that
the axe was left embedded in his forehead.

Just minutes before the attack the teenager, his girlfriend
and his cousin had been subjected to a 'torrent of racial
abuse' by a man in a hooded top.

Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Currie, who is leading
the inquiry, said Anthony had spent the evening at home with
his girlfriend, who is white and a fellow student at college
in Huyton.

Shortly before 11.30pm, they walked to the bus stop outside
the Huyton Park pub on St Johns Road so that Anthony's
girlfriend could get a 10 minute bus ride home to Kirkby.

But as they waited with Anthony's male cousin, who is also
black, they were racially abused by the man, who was standing
outside the pub. They left to find another bus stop because
they 'didn't want any bother or trouble'.

But minutes later, as they walked through the park, they were
attacked by three or four men and Anthony was dead.

Bernard Lawson, assistant chief constable of Merseyside,
said: 'Our first thoughts go out to his family and we have
met his mother and his sister and they are bearing up
tremendously.

'Anthony was a young Christian studying for his A-levels and
wanting to be a lawyer. Those dreams for him and his family
are now dashed.'

Anthony's girlfriend and cousin saw him hit and ran to get
help. Minutes later they returned to find him slumped on the
ground with the axe embedded in his head.

He was taken to Whiston hospital before being transferred to
Walton Neurological Centre, where he died at 5.25 yesterday
morning.

Lawson said that there had been a number of other incidents
of racial abuse in the area in recent weeks and appealed for
local people to come forward with information on the attack.

'We believe that the offenders are local and we believe that
it is the responsibility of the local community to give these
people up.

'If they do not do so it is not only a stain on the offenders
but also a stain on the community itself.

'There are a lot of decent people in the local area who are
absolutely shocked at what has happened.'

Walker's death will revive memories of the murder of Stephen
Lawrence, the black teenager stabbed to death by racists in
1993 at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London.

The investigation into Lawrence's death became one of
Scotland Yard's longest and biggest murder cases, but the
trial collapsed in 1996 amid accusations of institutionalised
police racism.

Last year the Crown Prosecution Service announced it had
failed to find enough new evidence to proceed. No one has
ever been convicted of Stephen's murder.