Joey Barton’s racist killer brother is aiming for early release from prison as a BBC drama on his victim is aired.
Michael Barton, 31, will appear before the Parole Board in October after he murdered 18-year-old Anthony Walker in Merseyside
Michael Barton, 31, will appear before the Parole Board in October after he murdered 18-year-old black student Anthony Walker in Merseyside.
The thug is serving an 18-year sentence for the sickening attack but is looking to move to an open prison so he can get out after 16.
Barton and his cousin Paul Taylor ambushed Mr Walker in McGoldrick Park and drove an ice pick through his skull on July 30, 2005, before fleeing to Amsterdam.
Joey, who then played for Manchester City, told his brother to turn himself in and he was escorted back to Liverpool by their parents and the police on August 3, 2005.
He was was found guilty of murder and jailed for what the trial judge called ‘poisonous racist thuggery’, having initiated the confrontation and supplied the axe.
Taylor, then 20, who is the cousin of Fleetwood Town manager Joey, was sentenced to at least 23 years.
When Barton first entered the prison system, his behaviour was atrocious, London’s High Court heard in 2016.
Devout Christian Anthony (pictured) was brutally killed at the age of 18 in the racist attack on July 29, 2005, in Huyton
He was viewed as a ‘high risk’ prisoner and was disciplined for fighting, stealing, making a model gun out of matchsticks and possessing illicit hooch.
But his sentence was cut short in 2016 when he became a charity worker while in lock up.
The horrific killing has been turned in to a BBC film called Anthony, which looks at how the devout Christian was brutally killed.
His mother Gee Walker, who was involved in the drama, said yesterday Mr Walker was ‘the son every mother dreamed of’ and called him ‘the epitome of goodness’.
She urged viewers to watch the 90-minute film – which envisages the life he could have lived – with an ‘open heart’.
She revealed how it will detail ‘moments of racism’ encountered by Mr Walker throughout his life.
Ms Walker told GMB: ‘It has been in the making for two years, but things happen, Covid and George Floyd and I just hope people watch it with an open heart.
‘There are moments of racism throughout, so welcome to the school of Anthony Walker.
‘Hopefully people will act, because we’ve talked for years and years and we’ve done nothing, and we can evoke a conversation and people will start acting.
‘Racism is a disease and it’s taking out our children and causing us pain and suffering.’
Mr Walker was a Liverpool teenager with a devout Christian faith and a love of basketball.
Known to his family and friends for his humour, intelligence and compassion, he was halfway through college with dreams of visiting the US and studying law.
Ms Walker called her son ‘every mother’s dream’ and hailed the ‘caring and sensitive’ teenager, who was ‘wise beyond his years’.
She said: ‘I often say he was the epitome of goodness. Every mother’s dream. When I carried him, I dreamed of having a caring and sensitive boy and I got all of that.’
She added: ‘He was wise beyond his years. The son every mother would have wanted.’
The BBC film was made by award-winning Liverpool screenwriterJimmy McGovern after in-depth conversations with Mrs Walker.
BBC programme Anthony tells the story of the life devout Christian Anthony could have lived. Mr Walker is played by Toheeb Jimoh (pictured in the programme)
The victim has been played by Toheeb Jimoh, and Mrs Walker explained after the read-through for the show she knew he was the right person to portray her son.
She said: ‘He captured Anthony’s character so well, because he can be humorous and also serious.
‘When I met Toheeb, I knew he was the one. He reached out to me as Anthony would, because we are a huggy family, so I knew the deal was sealed.’
A Parole Board spokesman told the Mirror: ‘An oral hearing has been listed for the parole review of Michael Barton and is scheduled to take place in October.
‘Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.
‘The panel will carefully examine a whole range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as understand the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.
‘Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.’