Gee Walker, mother of the 18-year-old Anthony Walker, has explained that she had received a letter from Paul Taylor, 20, who was found guilty of killing her son by slamming an ice axe into his head in Merseyside on 29 July 2005.
After being found guilty, Taylor was given a life sentence, along with his accomplice, 17-year-old Michael Barton.
In an interview with BBC Five Live, Gee Walker told that Taylor “expressed sorrow”. She also told how he repeatedly stated that he was “deeply sorry” about three times in the letter.
Mrs Walker said, “He just can't imagine how we feel, but, like he said, he can't bring him back. I don't think he was coerced into writing it. It looks genuine, so I just have to accept that he was sorry.”
Anthony Walker, before he was killed, was a committed and devout Christian, and was a youth leader at an Evangelical Alliance member church – Grace Family Church in Liverpool.
Mrs Walker, also a faithful Christian, had earlier this year said that she forgave her son’s killers.According to the BBC, Gee Walker said she would not let her son's name be forgotten. She said, “His life is going to make a change.”
Dominique, Anthony's sister said the family wanted to bring people of all races and backgrounds together “to raise understanding and break down barriers.
“They need to know what is going on. They need to understand about different cultures, they need to understand the way different people think. Simple things like respect is one thing which kids should all learn and not many kids do.”
On Tuesday, Mrs Walker reiterated that she would like to meet both Taylor and Barton.
She said, “They were the ones who spent the last moment with my son on earth and I'd like to really know what happened that night and to find out from them why they did it,” said Mrs Walker.
“I'd like to hear it from them - as to why. To see what the mind of someone who could do that, what they really think, to hear it from their heart, from their mouth.“The only way I'm going to find out the truth is to look them in their faces and [I would] know whether or not they're lying or telling me the truth,” she said, according to the BBC.
Taylor and Barton attacked Anthony in McGoldrick Park after racially abusing him as he waiting for a bus with his girlfriend and cousin.
Rev Joel Edwards, the General Director of the Evangelical Alliance has stated, “Anthony’s life was brutally taken from him in a senseless attack. His killers gave no consideration to him or his family, who have suffered so much by his death. We stand by the Walker family who have so bravely spoken a Christian message of forgiveness at this difficult time and pray that his life would not have been in vain.”
