SIDCUP: Man guilty of murdering Harry Potter actor Rob Knox (From This Is Local London)

SIDCUP: Man guilty of murdering Harry Potter actor Rob Knox

12:56pm Wednesday 4th March 2009

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A 22-YEAR-OLD 'habitual knife carrier' has been found guilty at the Old Bailey today of murdering young actor Rob Knox.

Mr Knox, 18, was stabbed five times on May 24 last year outside the Metro Bar, Sidcup.

Listen to the 999 call:

As well as finding Karl Bishop guilty of murdering Mr Knox, the jury also convicted him of wounding with intent against Mr Knox's friends Dean Saunders, Nicky Lee Jones and Charlie Grimley.

Bishop was cleared of wounding Andrew Dormer with intent, but found guilty of malicious wounding.

The jury returned majority verdicts against Bishop on the charges relating to Mr Jones, Mr Grimley and Mr Dormer.

He was cleared of wounding Tom Hopkins with intent.

Bishop, who denied all the charges, will be sentenced tomorrow.

Mr Knox had been running out of the bar to protect his younger brother Jamie (pictured below - Rob Knox left, Jamie right).

Bishop, of Beaver Lodge, Carlton Road, Sidcup, had come to the bar armed with two knives from his kitchen drawer.

The previous week on May 16, outside the same bar, a fight broke out after Bishop accused Mr Knox's friends of stealing his mobile phone.

After the fight, witnesses said Bishop had come back carrying a piece of wood with nails sticking out and goaded the group with the words: "I'm going to come back next week and someone's going to die."

The following week on May 23 Bishop tried to get back into the bar but was turned away.

Outside, he was involved in a fight with Mr Knox and friends before escaping in a car, the court was told.

Later, Bishop confronted and threatened Jamie and one of Rob's friends, Nicky Lee Jones, with the knives.

Before leaving the group and heading to the Metro Bar, Bishop told them: "It's your lucky night - you're not getting done."

The court was read a transcript of Mr Jones's frantic 999 call claiming Mr Knox was in danger.

He had told the operator: “You need to get a police car down here now because otherwise he's had it."

Bishop returned to the bar and stood outside, faced by a semi-circle of angry people.

He was challenging a crowd of people to fight him and was shouting: "Who's going to make my day?" the court had heard.

Friend of Mr Knox, Andrew Dormer, said he punched Bishop when he saw him put the knives away, apparently causing the defendant to pull out the blades again.

During the melee that followed, Mr Knox was stabbed five times, with one fatal wound to the chest.

He was comforted outside the Somerfield supermarket by friend Callum Turner who told him: “You're a doughnut aren't you, getting involved in all this rubbish. It's not worth it is it Rob?"

Witnesses described seeing chairs and bottles thrown at Bishop during the fight.

Bishop was wrestled into a flowerbed and disarmed before police arrived.

Mr Dormer, 17, was stabbed in the chest, while 20-year-old Mr Jones was stabbed in the hand.

Friends Charlie Grimley was stabbed in the face and Tom Hopkins claimed he was stabbed in the head.

Dean Saunders, aged 22, was stabbed in the neck, causing spinal damage, and now uses a walking stick to move around.

Bishop had claimed he was acting in self-defence while giving evidence in court.

He said: “I didn't intend to wound anyone at all but they attacked me."

He said: "There were no other options. They ran at me, attacked me and had me surrounded at one point."

Bishop said: "My intention was to scare people away from me and then as they kept running at me the knife was catching them. They kept running into it."

While Bishop was at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, a small crowd appeared and he shouted: "I don't care how long I go down for, when I get out I'm going to kill you."

He then told a policemen to take him straight back to Belmarsh, a prison he had only been released from in March 2007.

When charged with murder, Bishop had replied: “Yeah, sweet.” PC Reid said Bishop seemed "quite calm" and showed no remorse.

Mr Knox had just finished filming the role of Marcus Belby in the forthcoming film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was his biggest role to date and he had already been signed up for the next Harry Potter instalment.

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