Knife victim: I'm glad to leave dangerous UK

Tom Hopkins, 18, was celebrating signing a contract with a Spanish club when he and four other people were injured in the knife attack which left his friend dead.

He suffered a stab wound to the back of his head as he grappled with the knifeman in a bid to save others.

But he could only watch as the friend he described as a "great lad" lay helpless and lost his battle for life.

Tom, who was Southend United's youth team captain last season and will join lower league team CD Javea, is haunted by what he has seen.

The talented centre-half said he would be relieved to escape a city now blighted by knife crime. He said: "It's something that will live with me forever and I would not want any anyone else to go through it.

"It's put it all in perspective for me. I will never be nervous before a football match again because I know now that it's not a matter of life and death. My parents are really glad I'm going abroad because the knives and the violence in London are out of control.

"I've got good friends here but I'll be pleased to get away from the culture that is developing. There are too many young people dying for no reason."

The attack that claimed the life of 18-year-old Knox happened when a fight broke out outside the Metro Bar in Sidcup on Saturday.

Knox, of Sidcup, an actor since the age of 11, had finished filming the latest Harry Potter film a few days before he died. He was believed to have been trying to protect his younger brother Jamie, 17.

Along with Tom the four others wounded were 21-year-old Dean Saunders, who may have been left paralysed, Andrew Dormer, 16, who was stabbed in the chest, Nicky Lee Jones, 19, and 17-year-old Charlie Grimley.

Tom revealed that he and his younger brother, Jack, fell victim to a separate violent incident last summer. Tom needed eight stitches to a head wound and Jack had to have a metal plate fixed to his broken jaw.

Tom said today that it was becoming almost impossible for decent teenagers to avoid the wave of youth violence sweeping across London.

Speaking from the home he shares with his building site manager father Gary in Sidcup, he branded people who carried knives " cowards" and urged teenagers to steer clear of them.

He said: "Most boys will have had a fight at school or at some point in their lives. But these days people just want to hurt you.

"If they have a knife they will stab you, if they have a bottle they will use it. It's absolute madness.

"It has got worse even in the last few years and I'll be glad to be out of it for the time being. I don't know how these people can live with themselves. The message has got to be not to carry a knife because if you do good guys like Robert die."

A 21-year-old man from Sidcup has been charged with Robert's murder.