Funeral service 'full of colour'

By Stephen Hawkes
BBC News at Liverpool Cathedral

More than 3,000 people attended Anthony Walker's funeral

In a chilling coincidence, Anthony Walker, just hours before he was killed with an axe, had told a friend he wanted a particular song to be played at his funeral.

When it was, many of the congregation found it impossible to contain their emotions.

More than 3,000 people packed Liverpool Cathedral for Anthony's funeral, just a few weeks after he was attacked in a Merseyside park.

It was, for many, a tearful occasion.

Each of the many speakers paying tribute to the teenager was met with a rousing round of applause.

Many mourners wore sports shirts - at the request of Anthony's family, who wanted a "service full of colour to celebrate his life, his hope and his faith".

One young black man wore a purple football strip with the words "RIP Anthony" replacing the name of a player printed on the back.

There are positive people everywhere who can overcome the negative Roger Morris Liverpool Samba School

Football is Liverpool's great passion.

But, at the funeral, the blue and the red sat side by side - just like the black and the white.

At the back of the cavernous cathedral, where it was standing room only, mourners in traditional suits and black ties rubbed shoulders with builders still wearing fluorescent jackets.

Toddlers were allowed to run around in a space just inside the main entrance, while pensioners were ushered to seats near the front.

One row was reserved for officers from the Merseyside Police Service.

Roger Morris, the director of Liverpool Samba School, who closed the service with music from the Rio carnival, told BBC News his band had wanted to show Anthony's family "solidarity and support" and to "mark the fact somebody is lost to this world".

There are a lot of people who feel a sense of guilt - a collective guilt, as though the community could have helped him John Parker Mourner

He and his fellow musicians were hoping, he added, that Anthony's funeral would show even the most horrific tragedy could have a "positive outcome".

"There are positive people everywhere who can overcome the negative," Mr Morris told BBC News.

One of the positive people Mr Morris was referring to, Anthony's cousin Aaron Lewis, 16, was visibly upset at the start of the service - but he told BBC News he would not "hold a grudge" against the killers.

Not everyone was in such a positive mood.

As a mixed-race couple, John and Patience Parker said they had been "devastated" by Anthony's death and the "tragic way it happened".

They hoped the service would help "heal the hurt", John told BBC News.

But he added: "There are a lot of people who feel a sense of guilt - a collective guilt, as though the community could have helped him."

Chris Williamson, 14, became good friends with Anthony at church.

Pauline Sealey felt the healing process could now begin

They played together in the Grace Family Church Youth Band, and Chris played bongos with the band at the funeral.

He told BBC News he had been initially shocked by Anthony's death, and then "really depressed".

The funeral would help him come to terms with the loss, along with "the grace of God", he added.

"It was nice to see such a big response.

"Anthony would have been really happy this many people came for him."

Pauline Sealey, who grew up with Anthony's aunt in the same street, said she hoped the funeral would be the start of a healing process.

'Showing solidarity'

But she added: "It will be a long process - to let people know the community as a whole won't tolerate this behaviour or attitude."

Tayo Acuko did not know the Walkers but he had come to show "solidarity with the family and the people of Liverpool".

The service had been "very moving and very sad, but a fitting tribute to a young man who was less than half my age, but could inspire people younger and older than him", he added.

The "massive turnout" would "send a signal round the world that acts of evil will be triumphed over by good", Mr Acuko told BBC News.