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Harry Potter actor, 18, is stabbed to death in brawl outside bar near London

by Amy Judd | May 24, 2008 at 12:58 pm

873 views | 11 Recommendations | 3 comments

An 18-year-old actor, who won a coveted role in the next Harry Potter film, was stabbed to death in a fight outside a bar on the outskirts of London in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Rob Knox was a member of the same rugby club as Jimmy Mizen, murdered in a bakery in Lee, South-East London, two weeks ago.

The drama student died around 1am today in an attack in Sidcup, Kent, and was officially pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.

Police arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of murder after he was treated in hospital for facial injuries.

Rob's death takes the number of teenagers violently killed in the capital this year to 14. He is the third to be killed this month alone, after Jimmy Mizen, killed on May 10, and Lyle Tulloch, 15, from Peckham, South London, fatally stabbed in a stairway of a block of flats on May 3.

In the new film - Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, due at cinemas in November - Rob, who had finished his work on the set, plays Ravenclaw student Marcus Belby.

Today Rob's cousin Vicky May, 16, confirmed his role in the film and said he had also appeared in an episode of the hit TV police drama series The Bill.

Vicky's father Kevin May, 42, who was Robert's uncle, said: 'Rob was such a decent young man. We're all shattered, his family are in bits, they're devastated.

'It's all such a shock, we can't believe he's died, and in such a pointless way.

'Rob used to play rugby at Sidcup Rugby Club. That's the same club where Jimmy Mizen went, the lad who was murdered near here two weeks ago. I don't know if Rob and Jimmy were friends but they were at the same club.

'Where's it all going to end? When is this violence and the carrying of knives by young people going to stop? Something's got to be done.'

Rob won the part of trainee wizard Marcus Belby and had already appeared in ITV's The Bill

The dispute which led to Rob's murder was today being linked to the alleged theft of a mobile phone involving two of his friends.

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Barry Artiste

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 17:21 on May 24th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. What a waste of a talented life over a damn cell phone taken by his friends. Certainly shows idiocy of youth.

Beaulieu

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 00:50 on May 25th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

It's not surprising as you hardly see any police on the beat, unless they're in cars. You hardly ever see bicycle police either unless protecting the Olympic Flame. I know someone who has been shot in the head twice with an airgun in the city on separate occasions. By the time the police had arrived, the criminals have usually gone.

Special Constables are also being recruited by the police but they aren't being implemented enough on the beat and sometimes their training is cancelled due to lack of police staff at the time. My friend is a 'Special' and he had to wait over six months as his course was always being cancelled. Also the delays in recruiting new police takes time as the police, in my friend's case, had to ask if his mother had any boyfriends and they wanted to know about their 'history' too. Delays like this cost lives.