Credit: ITVX
Harry Potter Star’s Chilling Final Words Before His Horrific Murder
A young Harry Potter star was brutally murdered just days after wrapping up filming for the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, with his brother revealing his chilling final words.
Rob Knox was just 18 years old when he tragically lost his life in a senseless attack outside a pub in London, England, in May 2008.
The teen famously played Ravenclaw student Marcus Belby in the fifth movie in the Warner Brothers’ franchise, but sadly died before it was released in cinemas in 2009.
Although Rob’s character does not appear in the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the actor had been signed on to reprise his role in the subsequent two films.
His career in the industry had really started to take off, having previously appeared in British crime drama The Bill and BBC comedy After You’re Gone. He also featured in the Channel 4 reality show Trust Me, I’m A Teenager.
Rob was protecting his brother during the attack
Rob had been in Metro Bar in Sidcup, south-east London, on the fateful day, when he left after hearing his younger brother, Jamie Knox, who was 17 at the time, had been threatened by a man brandishing two kitchen knives.
Karl Bishop, then 21, later claimed he had been acting out of revenge, having lost a fight with Jamie and his friends the previous week, when he launched the attack on the group of teens.
Along with others, Rob had gone to disarm the attacker, which resulted in him being stabbed five times right in front of his brother.
Rob was quickly rushed to hospital, where his family were forced to wait for an agonising 45 minutes in A&E, before being given the devastating news.
Recalling the tragic events of that day, while appearing on ITV’s the Jeremy Kyle Show, Jamie said he saw a doctor and a police woman heading towards him, and he knew the worst had happened.
“I knew straight then. ‘I’m sorry, he’s passed away,’ are words you shouldn’t be hearing,” he said.
Four of Rob’s friends were also injured, including Dean Saunders, who was left with permanent spinal damage after being stabbed in the neck, and Andrew Dormer, who was stabbed in the chest while trying to disarm Bishop.
Rob’s chilling final words
Since the attack, Jamie has revealed the horrifying moment he witnessed his older brother being attacked, as well as the chilling final words he uttered before his death.
“It happened in front of me, I didn’t see a knife go in, but I saw Rob go up to get the knives off the boy,” he recalled.
“This kid was just swinging his arms around with knives towards people. I’ll never forget it. I turned around and screamed and when I turned back I saw Rob slumped around him, holding himself with his arms. He was saying, ‘I’ve been stabbed, I’ve been stabbed’.”
Bishop was quickly arrested and charged with Rob’s murder, having previously been convicted for a knife attack on two men.
The then-21-year-old, who was said to habitually carried knives, simply said ‘yeah, sweet’ after being told he was being charged with Rob’s murder, according to PC Craig Reid.
He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years, however he has shown no remorse for his actions as he refused to hear victim impact statements, smiled at friends in the courtroom and is even said to have giggled during proceedings.
The Rob Knox Foundation set up in his memory
Rob’s family, who had to attend the Harry Potter premiere without him, later set up the Rob Knox Foundation, to help other young people get into acting.
Speaking about attending the premiere without Rob, his mom Sally said, as per the Mirror: “All he wanted to do was get his dinner suit and walk up that red carpet at Leicester Square.
“He was a joker, he was a lovely normal kid. Didn’t mix with the wrong people. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
She also revealed Warner Brothers had taken the time to create a film out of Rob’s outtakes, which Sally has described as her ‘happy place’.
You can learn more about the Rob Knox Foundation here.
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