New generation of diverse law students start scholarship in memory of Anthony Walker

A scholarship scheme to inspire the next generation of lawyers has been relaunched in Liverpool in memory of Liverpool teenager Anthony Walker, who was murdered in an unprovoked, racist attack in July 2005.

Anthony, 18, was a student in the second year of his A-levels and planning to study law at university when he was killed.

The CPS wants to increase diversity in law by supporting students of minority backgrounds into a career as a prosecutor through the Anthony Walker Pathways initiative.

Dozens of potential lawyers have already started the revamped project which was formally launched at The Florrie community centre in L8 on Monday.

About the Anthony Walker Pathways initiative

To mark the 16^th anniversary of Anthony Walker’s death, the CPS, the Anthony Walker Foundation, Liverpool John Moores University and Salford University extended the scheme which was first started in 2008.

A total of 46 students from Liverpool and Manchester have started the relaunched initiative, aimed at encouraging people of different walks of life into law.

Nathan Miebai, a senior District Crown Prosecutor at the CPS, was the first recipient of the original scheme in 2008.

He said: “I am truly an honoured to be the first recipient of the Anthony Walker Scholarship and delighted that this initiative is being relaunched 13 years after its initial inception.

“It is extremely important that the CPS is representative of the communities that we serve and this scheme will provide an opportunity for talented individuals to build on their skills and experience.

“I am proud that I now have an opportunity to be very closely involved with the new scheme that has been extended to give other the opportunities that I have had.”

How will students take part in the initiative?

The initiative is being piloted in CPS Mersey-Cheshire and CPS North West and aims to bring more people from deprived and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds into CPS careers.

It has four elements and the students will start at one of the levels being offered:

• Work experience – short placements aimed at school aged young people (14-21)
• Apprenticeships aimed at school leavers (18-24)
• An undergraduate bursary scheme
• A post-graduate bursary scheme

Grace Ononiwu CBE, Director of Legal Services at the CPS, said: “You do not have to be white and wealthy to become a lawyer.

“The CPS and the wider Criminal Justice System need people of all backgrounds to have access to a career in law so that it is truly representative of the people we seek to achieve justice for.

“I am so very proud that we continue to honour Anthony Walker in this way, a young black man who had a great future ahead of him was prevented from studying law.

“By helping to inspire and support other people of minority backgrounds in his name into the sector and the CPS will continue to be a fitting tribute.”

Gee Walker and the Anthony Walker Foundation

Anthony’s mother, Gee and sister, Dominique, also spoke at the launch event.

Dr Walker, who has campaigned tirelessly to combat racism and help others, received a Pride of Britain special recognition award last week.

She set up the Anthony Walker Foundation in 2006, the year after her son was murdered by racist killers who chased him from a bus stop in Huyton and left him to die with a mountaineering ice axe embedded in his head.

The Foundation has worked with nearly 40,000 young people through educational and outreach programmes, supported nearly 10,000 people who have experienced hate crime and has engaged with thousands of community members.