IT’S been 15 years since Harry Potter actor Rob Knox was stabbed to death in a senseless attack outside a pub in south east London.
The 18-year-old was out celebrating, having just wrapped filming and signed up for the final two films in the franchise, when thug Karl Bishop knifed him five times after a minor altercation.
There were 29 teenage homicides in London in 2008 – the worst year on record until 2021, when 30 were killed.
Earlier this month Government ONS stats revealed 282 people lost their lives to knife crime in England and Wales in the year to March 2022 – the worst annual toll ever recorded.
Speaking to The Sun, Rob’s dad Colin – who along with ex-wife Sally has campaigned against knife crime since losing their son – says it’s shocking that so little is being done to tackle the epidemic plaguing Britain.
“The numbers are staggering but don’t surprise me because we aren't forceful enough with knife carriers,” he says.
“There's no reason for a young person to carry a knife at all – not tucked inside your socks or in your pockets. Saying it is for self-defence is rubbish. We need to do more to tackle the problem.”
Colin, 70, speaks ahead of a new ITV documentary – (K)nox: The Rob Knox Story – featuring home movies and interviews with friends and family, including mum Sally and brother Jamie.
“When we were finishing the documentary, we were told that there had been almost 3,000 deaths since Rob died,” he says.
“If people read about a murder every day, you become almost immune to it, but when you think almost 3,000 people have died in 15 years, why don't we learn anything?”
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9Colin hopes that, through the documentary, people will get to know the real Rob and understand the sickening tragedy behind the statistics.
“We need to show people who Rob was – this kind, funny, young person with a bright future,” he says.
“If you can connect with the character, you can better understand the feelings of the loss and the reasons for tackling knife crime.
“I wanted to use Rob's legacy, his name, his achievements to get that message across.”
Rob, who played Hogwarts wizard Marcus Belby in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, had a promising career ahead of him.
Having grown up in Chatham, Kent, and then Chislehurst – a suburban area of south east London – he loved to entertain from an early age, dressing up in his dad’s clothes and daft costumes to make his family laugh.
“He was chirpy, funny, handsome,” Colin recalls.
“He was so lovable and very cheeky, but with the kind of cheek where, as a parent, you say, ‘You shouldn't do that,’ but then turn away and smile.”
Colin recalls a chilling warning he gave Rob the last time they spoke, shortly before he died.
“He was 18 and going out a lot,” he says. “I said to him, ‘Just be careful. There are people out there with knives’.”
A few days later they passed each other in their car, and Rob texted: “Dad, I love you.”
Night of horror
On the night of May 23, 2008, Rob met Jamie, then 17, and some pals to celebrate the end of filming at his local, the Metro Bar.
As Jamie and his friend Callum left the bar they challenged Bishop, who was being abusive to a group of girls they knew, and there was a short scuffle before Bishop and his pal ran away.
But a few minutes later he was back near the bar, holding a knife to the neck of Rob’s friend Nick Jones and threatening Jamie before telling them: “You’re lucky. It’s not your night to die.”
Nick called the police but before they arrived, Rob and five pals surrounded Bishop in a bid to protect others.
“Rob was so angry that he had pulled a knife on me,” says Jamie.
“He was so protective. [Bishop] had a look in his eyes, almost possessed.”
In the chaos that followed Nick was stabbed through the hand, another friend, Andrew Dormer, was stabbed in the chest, two others were badly wounded, and Rob sustained five stab wounds, including one to the heart.
As police and ambulances arrived Jamie rang Sally, who dashed to the bar.
“I remember hugging Mum and over her shoulder I could see the ambulance crew were resuscitating him,” Jamie recalls.
“I think in my heart I knew he was dead then. That was hard to see.”
As his son was rushed to hospital, Colin received a call from hysterical Sally telling him Rob had been stabbed.
When he arrived Sally and Jamie were waiting for news in the family room.
“You're on edge because you don’t know what’s going on and every time that door squeaked open, we held our breath,” Colin recalls.
“After about an hour some medical staff walked in with the police. As soon as they said ‘I'm afraid we have to tell you…’ you know what the following words are going to be.
“They said they couldn't resuscitate him, but I think he was probably dead at the scene because one of the wounds was in his aorta.
“At that point the whole room just blew up. Sally fainted, there was screaming and total disbelief.
“It was horrible. He was a happy boy, enjoying life and cock-a-hoop about Harry Potter.
“He'd finished filming on the Tuesday, and by Friday night he was murdered.
“As I drove away from the hospital I remember thinking, ‘Why are people carrying on as normal? Don't they know my son is dead?'”
'Carried knives like pens'
Arrested the same night, Bishop, then 21, was sentenced to life in prison with a recommendation he serve a minimum 20 years, in March 2009.
Described by the prosecutor as “someone who carries knives like others carry pens in their pockets", he was given three more life sentences for wounding Rob's friends.
It later emerged he had been jailed in 2005 for knifing two other boys, and that, weeks before, police had failed to arrest him over a knifepoint robbery, despite being identified by the victim.
Meanwhile the Knox family struggled to cope with their trauma and grief.
“Dealing with it was hard,” says Colin. “Something that not many people know is that Rob had to have two autopsies, one for the prosecution and, as I found out afterwards, the defence have the right to do the same as well.
“So not only was he stabbed, he's been cut two other times.
“Then somebody tried to sell horrific pictures of his body for £10,000, so we had a long court case to get that person prosecuted as well.
“I was trying to deal with initial shock, trying to get over the death and then that popped up.
“I was angry, I was literally thumping walls. I had no help from anyone and I was living on my own.
“I thought about suicide five times. I was standing in the kitchen thinking, 'What's it all about?' You question life, but I pulled myself back from that because of Jamie.”
Charaf Elmoudden pleaded guilty in 2010 to handling stolen goods in relation to the autopsy photographs and was jailed for 15 months. In 2016, he was sentenced to five years after a £200,000 raid on singer Rita Ora’s house.
'I felt I'd let him down'
Colin admits he struggled with feeling he’d “let his son down” – having made a pledge to him on the day he came home from hospital as a newborn.
“I took him into the back garden in my arms, when he was just a few days old, and I was so proud,” he says.
“I said, ‘Welcome to the family. Both your mother and I will love you and look after you.’
“When he was murdered, I felt I had let him down because I didn't protect him.
“He was a man by then, old enough to drive a car and go to pubs and clubs, so I couldn't have protected him. But I'd made that vow to him when he was a few days old and to lose someone that you love dearly, in that way, is horrific.”
Almost 15 years after Rob’s tragic death, the pain Colin goes through every day is etched on his face.
Tears still course down his cheeks as he talks about his beloved son.
“It took me 10 years to stop crying,” he says.
“I'm still like weeping talking to you but I cried solidly for 10 years.
“Emotionally, I just couldn't get over it. That was the impact.”
Knife crime in numbers
TEENAGE murders from knife crime soared last year – and deaths have continued into 2023.
Knife deaths were the highest on record in 76 years last year with teens disproportionately affected, found an ONS report for 2021/22.
Knives or sharp objects were used in 75 per cent of 69 teenage murders, compared to just 40 per cent in adults.
Men were mostly affected, and deaths of males aged 16 to 17 increased from 10 to 24.
Out of 19,555 knife offences last year, 18 per cent of punishments were dished out to 10 to 17-year-olds.
Since 2011, 349 teenagers have been killed with a knife or blunt object. From 2008 to 2011, the Home Office reported 34 murders in under 17s.
This year looks set to follow the trend with a number of high profile teenage killings across England and Wales.
This month 16-year-old Brianna Ghey was found in a Warrington park with fatal stab wounds.
A boy and a girl, both 15, have been charged with her murder.
Holly Newton was only 15 when she was found injured in Hexham last month and later died in hospital. She was buried last week.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder, attempted murder, and possessing a knife.
Harley Barfield, 16, from Haverhill, Suffolk, died after a knife attack in broad daylight in January. A 16-year-old is charged with his murder.
Raymond James Quigley, 18, from Wymondham, died from four stab wounds in January after being attacked in Ipswich.
Alfie Hammett, 18, of Rushmere St Andrew, Suffolk, and a 17-year-old boy from Ipswich who cannot be named due to his age, have both been charged with murder.
Police are treating the death of Essex teen Andy Wood, 16, from Chelmsford, as murder and have charged Elijah Clark, 18, in connection.
Andy’s family have so far raised £2,370 for anti-knife charity, the Ben Kinsella Trust.
The determined dad says he wanted to do the documentary to prevent other families losing a child.
“You don't get over it. You formulate a new way of life that lives with Rob’s demise,” he says.
“I no longer go to his grave on the day that he was murdered. I only go on his birthday and Christmas.
“But I speak to him every day. And tell him ‘I love you Rob. You were a better person than I will ever be.’”
Colin set up the Rob Knox Foundation shortly after his death, both to tackle the issue of knife crime and support up and coming filmmakers.
He calls the two-pronged objective the “dark side and bright side of the moon”.
As well as running a film festival in his son’s name, they have supported talent with bursaries – including sponsoring singer Matt Terry through college before he won The X Factor in 2016.
They also made a short film, Cold Kiss, which starred Ray Winstone as a dad targeted by a knife gang, with Jamie playing the leader.
The film has been shown to prison inmates as part of an exit programme Colin runs, in a bid to stop reoffending.
They have also funded workshops at Feltham Youth Offenders institute and a Studio Arts project at a Gravesend school, and are working in partnership with Charlton Athletic on their Street Violence Ruins Lives campaign.
Directed by Rob’s childhood friend Aaron Truss and produced by Colin, the documentary is a powerful and moving tribute to the tragic teenager.
Rob’s Harry Potter co-stars, including Jim Broadbent and Tom Felton, pay tribute, and Ray Winstone – who worked with both Rob and Jamie on the movie King Arthur – expresses his despair at the rise of knife crime.
'The world's gone mad'
“Every day there’s another stabbing,” he says. “It’s like the world’s gone mad.”
Colin’s vision for tackling knife crime is as much about rehabilitation as it is prevention.
“I don’t just want the police and courts to put their efforts into capturing a murderer, I want to see people that carry a knife put into a custodial place, not a prison, but somewhere they also get an exit strategy that steers away from knife crime,” he says.
“We should have three stages. Stage one, three months mandatory; do it a second time and it becomes six months mandatory, and if you fail again, one year mandatory.
“Get them off the streets, get them away from gangs and put them somewhere you can turn them around.”
As well as forging a career which saw him star in Junior MasterChef, King Arthur and alongside Nicholas Lyndhurst in After You’re Gone, Rob stood up for what he believed in.
He published articles on bullying and received a posthumous bravery award for helping to apprehend two men who assaulted a customer in Kent’s Bluewater Shopping Centre.
Colin says he now hopes his son would be proud of him too.
“He had a lot of drive and never rested on his laurels,” he says.
“Everything he achieved was down to him.
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“Knowing the way that he ran his life, being positive and moving forward, he would hopefully be proud of me, proud of the family and proud of the foundation.”
(K)nox: The Rob Knox Story is streaming exclusively on ITVX from today.
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