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9/2/09

The trial of 21-year-old Karl Bishop for the murder of 18-year-old Robert Knox who appears as Marcus Belby in the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince begins at the Old Bailey in London.   Knox died of multiple stab wounds following an altercation outside a bar in Kent in May 2008.

Prosecutor Brian Altman told the court that Knox lost his life because of his ‘courage and sense of duty’ to his younger brother Jamie (17) who had earlier been threatened at knifepoint.   Five other teenagers were also wounded trying to restrain Knox’s attacker as he ‘lunged and swung’ two kitchen knives at them.   Knox died from a stab wound to the chest, one of five he received during the attack.

Knox’s death followed a series of run-ins between Bishop and the brothers, one of which had taken place at the same venue, the Metro Bar in Sidcup, the previous week, when Bishop allegedly threatened revenge against Knox and his friends, saying, ‘I'm going to come back and someone's going to die.’

Bishop had accused people at the bar of stealing his mobile phone and had tried to search Knox’s pockets.   When Knox refused to let him and another man pushed Bishop away he returned with a piece of wood and challenged people to fight him before eventually making his ominous threat and leaving.

Altman advised the court, ‘Rob was just one of a number of young people who over the past year or so have fallen victim to knife crime in London… He was particularly unfortunate because he fell victim to a young man who was not only an habitual knife carrier but also someone who would quite happily deploy and use knives as weapons, two in this case, to settle scores. That is precisely what happened here.

‘A few minutes after midnight on May 24 last year, Rob Knox was stabbed to death by this defendant, who was running amok outside the Metro bar.  At the time, Bishop was armed with two quite ordinary but two quite lethal knives which had come from his kitchen and with which he had quite deliberately armed himself. Tragically, in the melee, Rob Knox lost his life.’

Mr. Altman went on to tell the court that both Rob Knox and his brother Jamie were interested in drama.

‘In January, last year, he (Rob Knox) landed the part of Marcus Belby in the forthcoming film Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, due for release later this year.   At the time of this event, he had just finished filming and was looking forward to being in the next Harry Potter film.

‘He was a popular young man who would come to the help of others and was especially protective of Jamie, who thought the world of him.’

On the night of the murder Bishop was refused entry to the bar because it was after 11pm but was seen outside the bar at regular intervals.   At one point he was seen to punch a man for no reason before running away and then returning with two knives and threatening another youth outside a Tesco Express.   The threat was witnessed by 17-year-old Jamie Knox, who was sitting in a car with a friend, and he tried to intervene but was also threatened by Bishop.

Bishop ran off in the direction of the Metro bar.   Jamie Knox rang a friend at the bar who relayed a message to Rob Knox that his brother had been threatened with a knife.

Altman said, ‘Rob rushed outside the Metro just as the defendant was walking across an approach road which leads to the bar.    There stood the defendant outside, brandishing his two knives. Not surprisingly, a crowd mushroomed in size around him.

‘Rob Knox thought the world of Jamie and it is quite clear and entirely understandable that Rob must have believed, on good grounds, that Jamie was in danger, and he acted as anyone would to defend his younger brother.’

Bishop threatened to stab anyone who came near him, but when he put the knives in his pockets someone in the crowd punched him and a free-for-all ensued during which Bishop stabbed four others, including Knox who received a fatal stab wound.   Other alleged victims received wounds to legs, arms, face and hand, and one of them suffered ‘significant spinal damage.’

Altman told the court that Bishop, who lived with his mother, had two previous convictions - wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and causing actual bodily harm outside a mini-cab office.

Bishop denied all charges, claiming he was acting in self-defence.

11/2/09

20-year-old Nicky Jones, a friend of Robert Knox, tells the Old Bailey of his attempts to calm Karl Bishop immediately before Knox was fatally wounded.

On the 11^th February Nicky Jones described to the court how he had been with Robert Knox’s younger brother Jamie (17) and others during an encounter with Bishop shortly before Robert Knox was fatally wounded.

They had been outside a Tesco Express near to the bar where the stabbing took place when Bishop had brandished a knife and demanded to know ‘What are you laughing at?’   Bishop eventually left the scene, telling the group ‘It’s your lucky night, you’re not getting done,’ according to Jones. 

Jones made his way to the Metro Bar where he saw Bishop holding a knife in his right hand, and picked up two empty bottles of Smirnoff with which to defend himself before approaching Bishop.

‘I said to him ‘if you calm down, I’ll calm down,’ said Jones. ‘And placed the bottles on the floor.   It was as I stood up that he then lunged towards the group and towards Rob.

Jones added that Rob Knox appeared to bear the brunt of Bishop’s threats as Bishop ‘pointed the knife towards him, arms outstretched,’ and shouted ‘Who’s going to make me f***ing day?’  

Bishop was punched by another youth but produced a second knife, and others in the group became involved.

‘It happens really quickly from then,’ Jones told the court, ‘I grabbed the defendant's left hand to try and stop him from swinging the hand round with the knife. I used my right hand to grab his left hand.   As I proceeded to grab his left hand, he swung his arm over my head and his hand towards my chest.

‘I raised my left hand in defence to cover myself. The knife in his right hand went right through my wrist and came out between my thumb and index finger.   As I'd been stabbed I put my hand up, turned away and as I turned away Rob moved past me towards the defendant.’

Jones held his scarred hand up to the jury and said the wound had left him with tendon damage which had required two operations.

12/2/09

Tom Hopkins describes to the jury at the Old Bailey how he saw 18-year-old Rob Knox stabbed to death outside the Metro bar in Sidcup, Kent.

Hopkins, who was himself knifed in the head during the melee, told the court that he had ‘sensed the feeling of danger’ as a crowd gathered outside the bar following Bishop’s arrival.

‘He looked like a madman,’ Hopkins said, adding that people in the crowd were shouting ‘He’s got a knife, he’s got a knife.’    Hopkins said he saw Rob Knox being held back and ‘shouting something about his brother,’ before wrestling fee of the crowd and advancing towards Bishop.

‘Rob broke free and advanced towards the man with the knife,’  Hopkins said, ‘he was in a running movement. There was a clash, Rob was trying to fight him, there was grappling.’

Hopkins broke down as he recounted the moment Knox was killed and the trial had to be halted for a short while before he was able to continue.

He said, ‘As Rob was grappling with him, the boy had a knife in the right hand. He was stabbing Rob repeatedly’.

Jamie Knox, the younger brother whom Rob Knox was defending when he was stabbed also gave evidence, telling the court, ‘Rob was shouting. In my words, he was going mad. His friends were holding him back and I think one bouncer as well.’

Under cross-examination by defence barrister Ian Bourne QC about the earlier allegation made by the prosecution that Bishop had attacked one of Rob Knox’s friends in the car park of the Metro bar, Jamie Knox admitted that he hadn’t seen Bishop throw the first punch.   Knox said that after the encounter he and some friends left by car but returned to find Bishop following their friend Nicky Jones.   Knox said of Bishop, ‘He had a knife.   I only saw the one in his left hand.    He just turned around and paid his attention to me. He said 'Do you f***ing want some?' He had a sort of smug expression on his face, a sort of smile.’

Jamie Knox then went on to recall the fatal struggle between his brother and Bishop, describing how Knox had his arms around Bishop’s waist as the accused stabbed him a number of times in the head and chest until he fell to his knees.

Mr Bourne suggested to Knox that his brother was being held back and that Bishop was not trying to get to him, and when Knox agreed, Bourne said, ‘People were shouting but no one else was going as mad as Rob was.’

Prosecution barrister Brian Altman revealed that Knox was only ‘mildly drunk’ when he died, and said, ‘Karl Bishop is a violent and aggressive young man who thinks nothing of carrying knives and using them. There is no question that he went in determined to return to the bar and he returned for no reason other than to wreak his revenge, not with one knife, but two knives.   He was intent on one thing and one thing only - to use these knives to inflict maximum damage on those who had humiliated him.’

18/2/09

Callum Turner, the 18-year-old who tended to Robert Knox as he lay dying, tells the Old Bailey of event leading up to the fatal stabbing.

Callum Turner told the jury he saw Karl Bishop wave a knife at Knox’s 17-year-old brother Jamie, minutes before he walked to the Metro Bar and stabbed Robert.

Turner told the jury he drove his car onto the pavement outside Tesco Express where Bishop was standing in order to distract him, but forgot to wind up his window before doing so.

Turner said, ‘He was shouting at me 'You look like a big man, come on big man. Get out of the car'. He had a relaxed attitude about himself like it was all a joke. I was very, very scared. I have never felt so scared in my life. I was begging for him to leave me alone, I was begging him not to hurt me."

Turner then told the jury that Bishop suddenly turned away and walked off towards the Metro Bar, and described how he was in hysterics trying to warn the bar’s bouncers that Bishop was armed.

A hostile crowd gathered around Bishop as he stood with his back to the bar, and Turner described how Bishop turned from ‘relaxed’ to ‘crazy’ and ‘evil.’   After Turner threw a chair at Bishop, Robert Knox ran at him, smashed a bottle over his head and bear-hugged him from behind.  Turner said, ‘While Rob was struggling to get him to the flower bed he stabbed Rob in the side and stomach with both knives.   It looked like a hot knife through butter, it was just going in and out, in and out.’

In response to the prosecutions claim that Bishop attacked Knox for revenge over a number of fights he had lost to Knox and his friends, the defence counsel claimed Bishop was hounded by them, and witnesses accepted that he often acted in self-defence in fights with Knox and his friends.

On 16^th February, Ian Bourne QC claimed that Rob Knox had a pre-arranged rendezvous with his friends at the Metro bar to orchestrate an attack on Bishop that took place shortly before he re-emerged armed with the knives.

Questioning Callum Turner, he said, ‘The truth of the matter is that he, the man with the knives, was being attacked.   Did you see him attack anyone before he was attacked? Yes or no?’

In a barely audible voice Turner answered ‘No.’

21/2/09

The trial hears that Karl Bishop complained about missing a Ricky Hatton fight on television on the night he was arrested for Robert Knox’s murder.

PC Craig Reid told the court that, after the police had dragged him away from a hostile crowd armed with bottles and poles, his response to the news that Knox was dead was: ‘Yeah?   Sweet.’

The policeman said, ‘He was quite calm. There was no real reaction to being told that he was being arrested for murder. There didn't appear to be any remorse.’   Reid added that a short while later Bishop was heard to say, ‘Oh f***ing hell, I'm going to miss the f***ing Hatton fight. F***ing hell."

Reid also said that as Bishop was driven to hospital to be treated for bruising and a cut hand, he repeatedly demanded, 'Take me to f***ing Belmarsh, I'm going down any way.'’

23/2/09

Defendant Karl Bishop takes the stand in the murder trial of Robert Knox.

As Rob Knox’s parents Sally and Colin looked on Karl Bishop gave the Old Bailey his version of events that led to the death of their son.  He claimed he had ‘no option’ but to use the two knives he was carrying to defend himself against a mob of youths, ‘I didn't attack them, I was always going backwards and swinging my arms to keep them away from me.   I was swinging with my arms holding the two knives — you don't think people would run at somebody with a knife.

‘They were screaming. They were chucking bottles at me. They were just going mad.   My aim was to scare people away from me and then, as they kept running at me, the knife was catching them while they kept running into it. I was just trying to get away.

‘As soon as he (Knox) ran at me, everyone just ran at me. I couldn't be exact but there was a few – six or seven, maybe more. I didn't attack them. From what I can remember, I was always going backwards and just swinging and trying to keep people away from me but they just kept coming towards me.

‘They were shouting, put the knives away and have a proper fight' so I put the knives back in my pockets. Someone was shouting — I now know it was Robert Knox — he was being more aggressive than most people because he was being held back. I turned towards him and I got smashed in the side of the face and hit my head on the door. I took the knives out and I don't really remember the rest.’

When asked why he hadn’t put down his knives, Bishop said ‘they would have been used on me.’

Bishop had served time in a young offender’s institution for two previous convictions of slashing two men in the face in 2005, and said he carried a knife for protection.   He said that he was ‘really angry’ after being beaten up earlier on the evening of Knox’s death and had gone home to get two knives, saying that ‘I took two because two are scarier than one and I was angry at the time.’

Responding to Mr. Altman’s suggestion that he was trying to portray himself as a victim, Bishop said, ‘I'm not, because someone ended up dying. But I was the one that got attacked.’

24/2/09

Karl Bishop takes the stand for a second day.

During a second day of questioning Karl Bishop admitted that what he had done was ‘over the top’ and that it bothered him that he had killed someone, but added, ‘I didn't care at the time. I wasn't thinking at the time. I wouldn't have expected people to attack someone with knives. It's idiotic.’

Prosecution barrister Brian Altman asked Bishop, ‘Does the red mist come down when you get angry?’

Bishop replied, ‘It has been known, yes.’   And when asked if that was what happened on the night of the stabbing, he replied, ‘At first, yes,’ but denied Mr. Altman’s suggestion that he had wanted to use the knives to teach someone a lesson.

‘It was not my intention at all,’ insisted Bishop.   ‘I didn't intend to use the knives. If you show knives to people they are normally quite scared. I would be.’

When asked if he felt it was acceptable to use knives, Bishop said, ‘I felt I had to at the time.’   He went on to insist ‘I wasn't the one being aggressive. They were the ones being aggressive. I was surrounded. There were bottles coming from all angles, so I took the knives out so they wouldn't come near me.

‘I might have said 'if anyone comes near me I'll stab you’ but that's because I didn't want anyone to come near me.

‘They (the knives) were there so I took them out. At that point I wasn't intending to use them but I ended up using them.’

25/2/09

Prosecution barrister Brian Altman delivers his closing speech to the jury in the murder trial of 18-year-old actor Robert Knox.

Summing up the prosecutions case against 21-year-old defendant Karl Bishop, Brian Altman QC said, ‘This man was the aggressor and he was acting out of revenge.   He wasn't under attack - because he had the whip hand. He was the one armed with and using two knives.   Stabbing Rob and his friends was out of proportion to anything happening to him, so over the top that it cannot sensibly be regarded as lawful self-defence.

Altman added: ‘This man carries knives like others carry pens in their pockets, quite happily thinks little or nothing of stabbing others as if it were some occupational hazard.   Carrying knives is abnormal, it is not permitted, it cannot be done.   It is not glamorous, it is not normal and it is not allowed. People get seriously injured and people die - as this case all too tragically demonstrates.’

26/2/09

In his summing up of the case against Karl Bishop Judge Mr Justice Bean tells the jury to put aside sympathy for the victim’s family when they consider their verdict.

Summing up at the conclusion of the three week trial, Judge Mr Justice Bean told the jury, ‘You must decide the case only on the evidence that has been placed before you.   It is not about whether you feel sympathy for Robert Knox's parents and family.   You wouldn't be human if you didn't but it is not relevant to your decision."

Judge Bean told the jurors it was their duty to give true verdicts according to the evidence, without taking prejudice or sympathy into account.

4/3/09

21-year-old Karl Bishop is found guilty of the murder of 18-year-old actor Rob Knox and sentenced to four (concurrent) life sentences with a minimum sentence of 20 years to be served.

Karl Bishop was found guilty of fatally stabbing Rob Knox five times outside the Metro Bar in Sidcup in May 2008.   He was also found guilty of wounding four of Knox’s friends, Dean Saunders (23) who suffered permanent spinal damage after being stabbed in the neck, 17-year-old Andrew Dormer who was stabbed in the chest, Nicky Jones (20) who was knifed in the hand, and 17-year-old Charlie Grimley who was stabbed in the face and arm.

Bishop, who habitually carried knives, refused to return to the court to listen to the impact statements from Knox’s parents, Colin and Sally.   Returning for sentencing, Bishop was reported to have swaggered and giggled, and to have smiled at three friends in the public gallery.

In an interview with GMTV, 55-year-old Colin Knox said, ‘His body language was disgusting. When it comes to the crunch and he’s found guilty, he disappears into a hole and he can’t face the parents, the friends of Robert and those people he attacked.

“It just shows the guy’s values. He’s got no morals, no values.’

Rob’s mother Sally Knox (51) said ‘Personally, once he’s got his sentence and he’s gone, I will not waste my time thinking about him.   I just think maybe somebody like him may have some kind of disturbed mind, which may not be due to the life he’s had, it just may be something in him. I don’t know.’ [ADD]

(Sources: Daily Telegraph, Independent, Bexley Times, Glasgow Daily Record, This is London, The Guardian)