tags: Harry Potter film, Marcus Belby, Rob Knox, actor
People lay flowers at the scene in Sidcup, Kent, where 18-year-old Rob Knox was stabbed to death in a fight early today. The teenager died around 1am in an attack outside the Metro Bar, four other men were also hurt in the fight.
Image: Lewis Whyld/PA Wire.
This story should be placed into the "what the hell is wrong with people" category, but alas, it doesn't exist. Tragically, it turns out that one of the teenaged actors who is a character in the sixth Harry Potter film was stabbed to death this morning in front of a bar in Sidcup, Kent, located in the south of London. He apparently died protecting his younger brother.
The actor, Rob Knox, 18, plays Marcus Belby, a member of Ravenclaw House in the sixth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In this film, Knox's Hogwarts character, Marcus, was initially considered for membership in the "Slug Club" because his uncle, Damocles, invented Wolfsbane Potion. Unfortunately for Marcus, his father was not on good terms with the famous potioneer, and for this reason Horace Slughorn, who set up the "Slug Club", ultimately passed Marcus over. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released this November.
The young actor, Knox, who often was an extra in films, was caught in a fight outside the Metro Bar in Sidcup, next to the Sidcup train station. Apparently, the scuffle began when two men entered the bar, one of whom claimed that someone had stolen his cell phone. That man was armed with two wooden knives, one of which he was brandishing. Knox and a friend intervened on behalf of his younger brother, Jamie Knox, 16, who became involved. They apparently pinned down the knife-wielding man when Knox was fatally stabbed in the head.
"Rob was just trying to help out," said his friend, Tom Hopkins, 18. "He was like that. I grabbed the knife -- I didn't know at the time that he had another knife. It was just chaos."
The stabbing happened just yards from the shoe shop owned by Jimmy's parents, Sally and Colin Knox, in Sidcup High Street.
Murdered teenager Robert Knox (right) with his mother Sally and younger brother Jamie, 16.
Image: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
"Rob was kind and thoughtful and would always help out others -- he would always spend his last penny on other people instead of himself," said his parents in a statement.
"The life and soul of the party, he was very outgoing, loved sports, and would always strike up a conversation with people.
"He was respectful to others and adored by all his family and friends. He was an asset to the family."
Some people at the scene thought that Knox's mother was allowed to hold her son in her arms as he lay dying on the pavement. "She was just crying and crying, sobbing 'why my Rob?'," reports one witness.
Altogether, Knox was one of five young men and boys who were taken to various hospitals across London, police said. Among them was Knox's killer, who suffered facial injuries, and who has since been arrested on suspicion of murder.
"A man aged 21 has been arrested on suspicion of murder. He is being held in custody," said a police spokesman.
Knox was a former student of Beths Grammar School and Hurstmere School, and was a member of the Sidcup Rugby Club. Another member of this rugby club, Jimmy Mizen, 16, was killed earlier this month after his throat was slashed with a piece of glass outside a south London bakery for refusing to take part in a fight. Mizen was murdered only a few miles away two weeks ago.
"We're still mourning for Jimmy and now we've got a second victim. It's absolutely devastating," said the club president Phil West.
The fight was apparently not gang-related, but the number of violent deaths among teenagers has reached 28 in Britain this year, and the 10th fatal stabbing to occur in London.
Sources
London Telegraph (story, quotes).
USAToday (story, quotes).
The Guardian (story, quotes).
SkyNews (story, quotes).
- Log in to post comments
God-fucking-damnit!
Why do the young find it so easy to kill? Oh yeah, I remember. At that time in my life I was immortal and without a fully developed pre-frontal cortex too.
While the homicide rate is much higher in the US than the UK overall (but Scotland, especially Glasgow, is really bad), the rate of assault in the two countries is very close (7.57 per 1000 for the US vs 7.50 for the UK - see NationMaster statistics). In the UK, the chav (townie, charver, chavscum) culture with its violence-for-sport ethos ("happy slapping incidents" captured on cell phones, the recent hate crime beating homicide of a goth woman) and culture of public drunkenness underlies much of the violence. Britain has tried knife confiscation campaigns (slogan: "Knives take lives") in order to reduce the lethality of street violence.
Incredibly poor taste on the "live fast, die young" shirt in the first photo.
Letting teenagers hang out outside of bars? A hard way for the parents to learn that children neeed supervision by competent adults.
Too bad! This is a shame on the London Police that such criminal act is still allowed to find root even in this modern age of technology.
My advice to youngsters is to stay clear out of trouble. Why die when you can live! It is indeed really tragic. When a child is not well brought up, he/she will not live long and even if they do, it will be a terrible live. Child discipline is what is killing the society and if not checked on-time... God help us!