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Brother tells how fight ended in actor's death
Paul Cheston10.02.09
The brother of Harry Potter actor Robert Knox told the Old Bailey today how a nightclub brawl escalated into a knife fight which ended in his brother's death.
Jamie Knox, 17, described how Robert held serial knife offender Karl Bishop in a rugby-style "tackle", yelling at him: "Why did you hold a knife to my brother? That's my little brother."
The jury has been told that Bishop was determined on revenge after a row the previous week and had warned: "Someone is going to die."
Jamie described how he and his 18-year-old brother had made their ways separately to the Metro bar in Sidcup in May last year.
Jamie said: "While I was talking to Rob he was paying attention to something else. It was a bouncer and someone I had never seen before trying to get in.
"When Rob saw him he said, 'That's the kid I had a fight with the other week.'"
The other man was 21-year-old Bishop. "He was trying to get to the bar and the bouncer was trying to stop him and calm him down and getting him away from the bar," Jamie said.
Later, outside the bar there was a confrontation and fight before Bishop threatened Jamie with a knife.
Jamie then telephoned Rob to warn him that Bishop was returning to the bar and was armed with a knife. When Jamie arrived at the bar himself, Bishop was surrounded by people including Rob, the court heard.
"I could not believe what I was seeing - Rob was shouting and going mad," said Jamie.
In the ensuing fight Rob was stabbed five times including one blow which severed an artery in his chest and he died shortly afterwards from internal blleding. Five of his friends were also injured in the incident.
Asked if he was surprised that his brother had tried to come to his rescue, Jamie said: "Rob would not shy away but he would not do something unless it was necessary."
When he died, the court heard how Rob was "upbeat and cheerful", having just completed filming in the new Harry Potter film to be released in March and was looking forward to appearing in the next one.
The two siblings had attended theatre school together and had later both starred in the film King Arthur.
Jamie told the Old Bailey: "We were very close as brothers and I looked up to him. He looked after me a hell of a lot and protected me."
The court has heard that Bishop - who has two previous knife convictions - had initially been infuriated over a row over a mobile phone and had gone out armed with two knives.
Bishop, of Sidcup, denies murder, claiming self-defence, and five charges of wounding with intent.
The case continues.
