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Anthony Walker killer Michael Barton's sentence to be cut

A high Court judge has ruled that Michael Barton will be released a year early due a "remarkable transformation"

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Anthony Walker's mother speaks out about her son's killers getting early release

Gee Walker publicly and bravely forgave the two men who killed her son Anthony in a racist murder in Merseyside.

But now she's outraged that one of the killers - Michael Barton - has been handed a one year cut to his life sentence.

Barton and his accomplice Paul Taylor attacked Anthony in a park in Huyton in 2005.

Rob Smith has this report.

Gee Walker speaks of being 'betrayed' after jail sentence is cut for son's killer

The mother of the teenager Anthony Walker who was murdered 11 years ago says she feels 'deeply betrayed' after a judge reduced the minimum sentence of one of his killers.

Michael Barton, from Huyton in Liverpool was seventeen when Anthony Walker was killed.

Today he had a year cut from his jail sentence for what the judge described as 'exceptional progress' behind bars.

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Mother of murdered Anthony Walker speaks out after his killer gets sentence cut by High Court

Anthony Walker's mother, Gee Walker Credit: PA

The mother of Anthony Walker, the black teenager murdered in a racist attack 10 years ago, has condemned a judge who has reduced the minimum sentence of one of his killers .

Michael Barton and Paul Taylor were jailed for life for the 2005 murdering Anthony Walker, 18, in Huyton, Merseyside.

Barton today had his life sentence minimum tariff reduced by one year, on the grounds that he is a reformed character, and was under the age of 17 when he committed the murder.

Members of the Walker family were in court to hear the decision that could pave the way for Barton, now aged XX, to make an application for early parole.

College lecturer Gee Walker said her family felt "betrayed" by the ruling, since the law had promised her son's killers would serve minimum tariffs of 17 and 23 years respectively.

Anthony was killed in an axe attack at a bus stop in Huyton on 30 July 2005 which caused national revulsion.

Mrs Walker, who set-up the Anthony Walker Foundation, in her son's name, to promote racial harmony, questioned the message the ruling sends out to criminals.

Gee Walker said:

"It is a big let-down. I’m very disappointed and I feel deeply betrayed.

"We put our trust in the judges, in the law, and then they go and do this. It’s just wrong. I will have to live with it, but what about the people who have not got a faith like me? Where does it leave them?

"This sends completely the wrong message to criminals. It tells them that if the pretend to be good they will win.

"I don't believe what he has done in prison is anything more than pretence. I believe he is playing a game and he sees that he is winning by doing that.

"This decision to cut his minimum sentence does not make any sense and it dishonours Anthony's memory.

"They promised me and my family that Barton would serve a minimum of eighteen years. It is not fair to make a promise like that and then come back and say they have changed their mind.

"A promise is meant to be a promise and judges should not be break a solemn promise that was made to us.

"We have to live this or ordeal rest of lives. It is utterly wrong."

– Anthony Walker's mother Gee Walker

Gee said she had not attended the court since she had been informed that it had “already been decided”.

Instead her daughter Donna her cousin had attended the court with two police officers to witness the proceedings.

Mrs Walker has said from the outset that she had forgiven her son's killers, Paul Taylor and Michael Barton, the brother of then Manchester City footballer Joey Barton.

She has explained that extending forgiveness was:

"Not about the perpetrator, but about obedience to God and Anthony."

– Anthony Walker's mother, Gee Walker
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