Harry Potter Star Stabbed to Death

HARRY POTTER star Robert Knox was stabbed to death desperately trying to protect his little brother.
Robert, 18, waded in to defend 16-year-old Jamie after they and a group of friends were confronted in a bar by a crazed attacker armed with two knives.
One pal revealed: “Jamie idolised his brother. This is going to be unbearable for him. “They went everywhere together and did everything together.” The brothers were so close that when Robert completed his scenes as Marcus Belby for Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince just two weeks ago Jamie was there watching proudly on the set.

Another pal said: “Rob’s best chat-up line was, ‘I’m in Harry Potter’. He used to take us down to the set. I can’t even think of watching the film now.” Last night, Robert’s pals told how his sobbing mother cradled her dying son.

Tarik Ozresberoglu, 17, described how shattered Sally Knox rushed to the scene and got there before the ambulance. Police allowed her inside a hastily-erected cordon and she knelt by his side “crying and crying”. Another friend, builder Scott Shorter, 18, described how he held Robert in his arms before Sally arrived, begging him to stay alive. He said the pals were due to go on holiday to Greek isle Zante in three weeks.

Robert’s death outside the Metro Bar in Sidcup, Kent, came exactly two weeks after altar boy Jimmy Mizen had his throat cut in Lee, just five miles away. Incredibly, both Robert and Jimmy, 16, played for Sidcup Rugby Club, though it is not clear if they were friends.

Witnesses said the Knox brothers became caught up in the frenzied attack after a man accused one of their pals of stealing a mobile phone. Lee Howard, 19, a friend of Robert who saw the trouble, said: “We were in the bar, just having a drink on a Friday night as normal, when word went round that someone was coming down, tooled up with knives.

“We told the bouncers on the door but they told us not to worry.

“Then two black men in an Audi A3 turned up outside. The bouncers didn’t seem to search them and let them into the bar. “It kicked off straight away. One of them went up to Jamie and said, ‘I’m going to get you. I’m going to slit your throat.’
“This man threw a chair at Jamie and a big fight erupted. We were all just trying to get the knife off him. “It all spilled outside the bar. We got the man in the bushes but he pulled out another knife. “He had one in each hand and was just lashing out. There must have been six people who he stabbed. It was terrible.”

His accomplice fled. One of their group, 21-year-old Dean Saunders, is thought to have been stabbed three times on the left side of his neck.

He was “serious” in hospital last night but his condition was not thought to be life-threatening. Andrew Dormer, 16, was stabbed in the chest but released from hospital yesterday afternoon to join well-wishers laying flowers at the murder scene. Other pals of the Knox brothers hurt in the incident were Nick Jones, 19, who was stabbed in the hand, and Charlie Grimley, 17, cut in the cheek and arm and Tom Hopkins, 18, struck on the back of the head.

It was Tom, who plays for Southend United’s youth team, and Tarik who wrestled the attacker in the bushes. The brave pair struggled with him for six minutes before police arrived. Tom said: “Tarik rugby-tackled him and he fell into the bushes. I jumped on him. Tarik was shouting, ‘I’ve got the knife’ but I didn’t realise the bloke had got two knives.” Showing his wounds from the struggle, Tom added: “He gashed the back of my head. We just wanted to get the knives off him. It was chaos.

“I walked round the corner and burst into tears. I saw Rob lying on the ground face-up. He was covered in blood.” Tarik said that after he was stabbed “Rob stumbled back and lifted up his top and I saw blood.” Tarik ripped off his friend’s jumper and tried to stem the bleeding. But Robert, thought to have three stab wounds to the chest, was pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, shortly before 1am yesterday.

Tom added: “Rob was just trying to help out. He was like that.”

READ THE FULL HORRIFIC STORY HERE.