Racist axe killing: Two men are arrested after they return to UK

The two men were arrested when they stepped off the aircraft at Liverpool's John Lennon airport.

Earlier, Merseyside Police said: "Arrangements have been made with Paul Taylor's solicitor to bring back both Paul Taylor and Michael Barton."The two men returned to Britain 24 hours after Joey Barton urged them to hand themselves in. Merseyside Police had been working with Interpol to trace the pair.

A 26-year-old man being questioned on suspicion of Mr Walker's murder was released on police bail yesterday. Detectives have now released four men who were prevoiusly arrested in connection with the killing.

A spokeswoman for Merseyside Police said: "We have had an overwhelming response from the local community but we still need to hear from any members of the public who have information that can help us with our inquiries."

Mr Walker, 18, an A-level student, devout Christian and talented basketball player, died after an axe was embedded in his head after a group of men hurled abuse at him at about 11.30pm on Friday last week. He was taking his girlfriend to a bus stop when the attack on Anthony and his cousin, Marcus Binns, 17, began.

Liverpool's repugnance for the murder was demonstrated on Tuesday evening when hundreds of people attended a peace vigil in the city centre to support the Walker family and protest against racism.

The scene of Mr Walker's death, at the entrance to McGoldrick Park, has also attracted scores of tributes, including a message from Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered black London teenager, Stephen Lawrence.

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has said that there have been 45 race-related killings in Britain since publication of a report into the Stephen Lawrence's murder.

The IRR said the official response to many of the killings was "inadequate", despite wide-ranging recommendations in 1999's Macpherson report.

Growing numbers of victims were asylum-seekers or foreign nationals working in the UK and most of the murders had received little publicity, it added.

Merseyside Police has made clear from the outset of the investigation that the lessons of the bungled Lawrence murder investigation, which exposed a deep-seated culture of racism at the Metropolitan Police, have been learnt.

Bernard Lawson, the assistant chief constable of Merseyside, said: "I'm pleased, in all these sad circumstances, that we are doing our utmost to bring the offenders to justice, but we are not going to be complacent."