Murdered Harry Potter actor's mother 'out of tears'

The mother of the murdered teenager Robert Knox has "run out of tears" to express the pain of her loss, her husband has said.

Brother Jamie and parents Colin and Sally Knox pay tribute to Robert Knox, the Harry Potter actor who was fatally stabbed in Sidcup

Sally and Colin Knox paid tribute to their popular 18-year-old son, a young actor who had just finished filming for the new Harry Potter movie, as "an angel on earth without wings".

He was stabbed to death outside a nightclub on Saturday as he tried to protect his younger brother from a man wielding two knives, after an apparent argument about mobile phones.

Mrs Knox said that he was "always the first person to stand up against wrong".

The younger brother he was protecting, Jamie, a 17-year-old Olympic hopeful in the martial art Tae Kwon Do, wrote a touching tribute.

 

He said: "I loved you so much. I know you would and will always be there for me. As much as you didn't know it I looked up to you so much. I would never have thought it would turn out this way. I thought you were invincible."

Mr Knox, who works in media production, said there was an explosion of emotion when he heard his son had died. But he said the couple had moved into denial and "Sally had run out of tears".

Earlier, he had been inconsolable as he visited the scene of the killing.

 

He laid a Mickey Mouse toy and flowers with a message that said: "You are my son, my buddy, and always will be. I love you so much. Sleep tight my baby. I have brought Mickey to keep you company. Love you so so much. Dad. xxx"

Robert's grandmother, Margaret, 79, called on every parent of teenagers "to take note of what they are carrying, search them, just try, at least try to put an end to this violence".

There was anger among Robert's the friends at the "sickening" waste of life.

 

Callum Turner, 18, told of how he cradled Robert in his arms as he died on the pavement.

"He looked into my eyes and said 'Callum, I need help, I need you to help me.' I knew he was in trouble. I knew he was slipping away, it was just so sad. There was nothing I could do to save him – he died in my arms.

"I will never forget that look in his eyes as his life ebbed away – it will haunt me forever."

He added: "I just don't understand the person who did this to Rob – why did they have to carry a knife?
"Why attack someone who was defenceless and innocent? People running around with knives, they don't realise the value of life. It's sickening."

 

Four others were hurt in the fight outside Metro bar in Sidcup. They are being treated at separate London hospitals – a 21-year-old for a stab wound to the neck, a 16-year-old youth for a stab wound to the chest, and another man in his 20s for hand injuries.

Witnesses said that the attacker was well known for stealing mobile phones. He had been thrown out of the bar twice the week before, but returned in the early hours of Saturday morning wielding two knives and allegedly said: "Who's going to make my day then?"

He had allegedly threatened Jamie and when Robert heard about it, he confronted the attacker, and was stabbed four times. The man named locally as 21-year-old Karl Bishop, has been arrested in connection with the murder.

Robert was a member of the same rugby club as Jimmy Mizen, the 16-year-old murdered in a bakery in nearby Lee, south-east London, two weeks ago. His brother Danny Mizen, 30, said at the family home yesterday: "This boy is only from a few miles down the road so it's all very close and brings what happened to Jimmy crashing home again.

"It's just very hard for us right now. It's all so senseless. We feel for his family."