• [Dailystar Icon]
• Showbiz
• Harry Potter

Harry Potter star was stabbed to death as brother heard chilling last three words

Harry Potter star Rob Knox was brutally stabbed to death outside a nightclub just days after finishing filming on the sixth film in the franchise - and his brother Jamie tragically witnessed the murder

[A close-up portrait of a young individual, with a light-colored wall as the backdrop, showcasing the individual's face and upper torso, dressed in a white and blue checkered polo shirt, with a cheerful expression.]

Rob was just 18 when he died(Image: ITVX)

This heartbreaking star was never given the opportunity to fulfil his enormous promise.

Just days after completing filming on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 18-year-old actor Rob Knox was fatally stabbed in a brutal assault. He was protecting his younger brother - who heartbreakingly witnessed the killing.

"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," Jamie Knox told the Jeremy Kyle Show. "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."

[An individual seated at a table is engaged in the act of consuming food from a bowl using a spoon, with various objects and glassware present in the surrounding environment.]

Rob starred in The Half-Blood Prince

Rob - who portrayed Marcus Belby in the film series - was rushed to hospital and what ensued was an excruciating 45 minute wait in A&E for his relatives, reports the Mirror.

However, the moment Jamie spotted a doctor and policewoman approaching them, he realised his brother had died. "I knew straight then. 'I'm sorry, he's passed away,' are words you shouldn't be hearing," he remembered.

Karl Bishop, 21, was charged with Rob's murder. He possessed a prior conviction for a knife assault on two men and routinely carried blades. During Bishop's trial, prosecutors stated he had acted from vengeance, alleging that he had lost a fight with Jamie and his mates the week before. Rob was knifed outside Metro Bar in Sidcup, south-east London. He had departed to safeguard his younger brother Jamie, then 17, upon learning that Bishop had threatened him.

[Three individuals are posing together in a social setting. One person is holding a glass, while the others are smiling. They are positioned closely together, with a wooden background visible behind them.]

Rob was protecting his brother(Image: PA)

Bishop, 21, responded chillingly when informed he was being charged with Mr Knox's murder, uttering "yeah sweet", PC Craig Reid revealed during the trial. He described Bishop as initially calm but then becoming irate due to missing a Ricky Hatton bout.

Bishop was eventually found guilty of murdering Rob, whom he stabbed five times outside the club. He also wounded four of Knox's mates, most severely Dean Saunders, 23, who sustained permanent spinal injuries after being stabbed in the neck, and Andrew Dormer, 17, who was stabbed in the chest whilst attempting to disarm Bishop.

He received a life sentence, with a minimum term of 20 years. However, despite his conviction, The Times reported that Bishop declined to listen to victim impact statements, smirked at friends in the courtroom, and even chuckled at one stage.

During his sentencing, a judge told the murderer, "I do not think it is proved that you intended to kill Robert Knox." But, he added, "The truth is that you simply could not care less whether you killed him or not. Your lack of regret let alone remorse was truly chilling".

[Several individuals are gathered in an outdoor setting, engaged in a press conference. A central figure, a woman dressed in a white coat and a black scarf, stands before a bank of microphones, holding a stack of papers. Adjacent to her, two men in formal attire are present, one wearing a dark coat with a lanyard and the other in a beige coat. Additional individuals, both men and women, are visible in the background, some of whom appear to be addressing the media.]

His family was left heartbroken(Image: Daily Mirror)

Rob's heartbroken family subsequently established the Rob Knox Foundation to assist young people in pursuing acting. His mum Sally later expressed the agony of attending the Harry Potter premiere without her son.

"All he wanted to do was get his dinner suit and walk up that red carpet at Leicester Square," she said. "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 disclosed that Warner Brothers had created a compilation of her son's unused footage, which she described as her 'happy place'.

Rob's initial credited performance was a minor role in ITV police series The Bill, and he also featured in Channel 4 reality programme Trust Me, I'm a Teenager and BBC sitcom After You're Gone.

His career-defining part came as Marcus Belby in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was released posthumously in 2009. Despite his character being absent from the seventh book, Rob had already committed to returning for the franchise's concluding film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Want all the biggest Showbiz and TV news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Showbiz newsletter.

[Dailystar Icon]

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Choose Daily Star as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.