Every knife crime story is important. It is just that Rob’s story had a light shone on it from the press because of Harry Potter, I suppose.
The 18-year-old was stabbed in a fight which broke out in Sidcup in Kent. Robert’s friends told us his brother was attacked by a man carrying two kitchen knives. The attacker seemed almost possessed.
We don’t know if he was on something. A 21-year-old man was arrested on the scene and was still being held on suspicion of murder. Previously, he had been arrested, and at the time of the murder of Rob, he was on bail for a knife crime offense.
Like an increasing number of victims of knife crime, that night was to be his last. When it came through on the news, it was so 𝓈𝒽𝓸𝒸𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔. He was a very easy and naturally talented guy to work with.
Rob was so popular, and because of his popularity in Harry Potter, he brought larger media attention to the problems of knife carrying in this country.
My mum said that it is like catching something like winter vomiting disease. I cannot get my head around really why people are walking around with knives and why we are not doing something about it. I saw the knife go into my hand and come out the other side.
He had the knife up to my neck, but he was after my mate, and we could not find my mate anywhere.
Amongst them was his younger brother Jamie. Eyewitness reports suggest Robert died trying to protect him from the attacker. He is my best friend.
I wish it would all stop tomorrow, but I am afraid that is not going to happen. It is just getting worse. When is it all going to end?
Who won, Rob? What? Who won?
Me.
In 2017, Rob was very outgoing and playful. He was always dressing up with his brother to entertain whenever grandparents came around for dinner or lunch. He put on a show, a magic show or fancy dress show.
He just loved life. Rob’s dressing up lesson was to laugh at the face of danger. I think he had his first kiss at the age of about four and a half, dressed in a Superman outfit.
Rob growing up was a good boy. He was always full of mischief and always playing jokes. Right from a really, really young age, he used to love dressing up.
He would come out into the garden wearing his dad’s clothes, carrying an umbrella as if he was going to work. So right from a very young age, he was somebody that loved pretending to be somebody that he was not.
You thought you were scary. You never met my mother. He is a big character, he always has been.
He has always been outgoing. He was a great older brother, like what you could always imagine for. Obviously, we had our play fights and stuff that happens and arguments, but at the same time, could not ask for anything better, really.
Growing up, he was a lot of fun to be around.
Rob grew up on the street along from mine when I was younger. There was something about Rob that made you want to stick with him. I cannot really put my finger on it, but he was very different to other children.
Rob would always organize everything. He was always the person to speak to, to find out what is going on. He was just a laugh, in basically.
What the hell is this? We do not tolerate that. We were more like best friends, really.
Obviously, you have a relationship with your brother or sister sometimes. You do not want them being with you because they cramp your style, but we had the same group of friends. Whenever we were doing something, Jamie had been invited.
They were kind of inseparable.
He would always be, “Mom, come and sit with me on the sofa, give me a cuddle.” I can remember as he got a little bit older, one of the big things that sticks in my mind is we were down at Bluewater shopping. As we walked along in Bluewater, I think Rob was 17, and he grabbed my hand to walk along the road.
I said, “That is not going to do your street cred any good.” And he went, “I do not care. I do not care.
Everybody can know that I love my mom.” Things like that really stick in my mind.
He went to Kemnal, his first secondary school. He started getting a bit of bullying stuff halfway through secondary school. He changed and came to my school, so I spent the second two years with him.
So I had someone to keep me safe. Because he was bullied at school, his personality came out. At home, he was always joking and laughing, but also used to do it at school.
At school, he was probably the teachers’ nightmare. He likes to entertain. He likes to make people laugh, and he is very good at doing that as well.
He is 55 in the book of the house. And the brick is still on the roof. Derek is doing pool on the stairs.
And Aaron has come to help. Well, almost done.
About two years ago, my mom wanted to go to acting because that is what I want to do. My cousin went to D&B, and she said obviously I will go to this theater school, so try here. The first time I met Rob and Jamie, they were really young.
I remember them coming up to the studio reception desk, and they were just so super chatty, confident boys. I remember turning around to my sister and saying, “If I ever had kids, I would love them to be as confident as these two boys.”
But it was nice that I was still doing it with him, so we had something in common. I think Rob probably tried out the dancing classes maybe once or twice and realized that was not really his bag. Rob tended to avoid full-on sequined clothes, which surprises me considering his flamboyant younger performances, but no, that was more Jamie’s thing.
He will 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 me for saying that.
It was at that point he decided, you know, I want to be an actor. He looked in the paper, and Channel 4 were looking for people for this show, Trust Me, I’m a Teenager. The mentors agree that the Rainbows need rules and discipline, so set about visiting them at home to see the family in action.
Testing, one, two, three. Robert is first to inspect the family dynamics.
Michael, ouch. I could not really live with this, you know. It is driving me mad.
He went into the house and had to get the kids to behave by doing what the teenagers tell them. We want you to twice a week sit down and have a family dinner, and when you are talking or having dinner or anything, we do not really want blowing smoke across the table. So when you smoke, you have to go downstairs and outside to have a smoke.
Okay.
He did everything himself. His first two jobs, he never got through an agent or anything. He was that keen that he found them himself.
Doing After You’ve Gone was so much fun. When Rob first walked in the door, I thought, well, he is really cool and really down to earth. So I was kind of thinking, I wonder how he is going to handle all the crazy stuff that After You’ve Gone kind of throws at you.
It was the first time we had sort of seen Rob on TV, so it was really exciting for us. Josh has not shown up yet. Well, how can you tell?
I mean, Josh would not be in fancy dress. He is the only non-giggy friend Alex has got. Molly?
Oh. Hi, Josh.
Auditioning for any of the Potter films, I am sure, was not like auditioning for anything else. It was very different from any other audition that I have done before, and probably the longest set of auditions. It took a few months for them to decide to finally dye my hair blonde to play Malfoy.
By the time Rob came on, there was probably a lot more rigorousness towards the casting process, I imagine.
I do remember Rob distinctly because he was quite confident, charming, very likable guy who was clearly nervous, but had huge belief in his own abilities. You can imagine Harry Potter, there are so many callbacks. It is quite a long process.
It was that wonderful combination of someone who was dipping their toes into something that was quite big and exciting for them, and that was giving him some butterflies.
I actually felt sick because I thought and I knew how disappointed he would be if he did not get it. We were casting him for another role. We were seeing him for a character called McLaggen.
Or at least we were looking for a lot of actors for this character called McLaggen, who was this sort of amazing athlete. Rob read for a couple of different roles, including McLaggen. We sort of stepped away from the whole process, Fiona, my casting director, and I, and we kind of came to the conclusion that maybe Rob would be a really good Marcus Belby.
There is no larger iconic film around than Harry Potter. For him to be chosen to be in that iconic series of films was absolutely amazing.
Sing, then. Very interesting. All right.
The atmosphere on Half-Blood Prince was always playful. Filming took a long time, so in between we would muck about. I remember Rob being quite the joker, being quite cheeky.
I mean, probably equally cheeky as myself, to be fair. We would play slapsies or make some cricket game up outside, or try and steal Robbie Coltrane’s phone and turn the language into Turkish, or just basically be mischievous. But yeah, I remember it being equally fun on set with Rob as it was off.
Yeah, I agree. She is spinning now. I would have thought very high, but she could be very dangerous.
When I found out he got Harry Potter, I was so jealous, but at the same time I was so happy for him. It was amazing.
Take 451, take three. A camera? A camera.
And action. So, a toast to Hogwarts’ brightest and best.
I was playing Professor Horace Slughorn, one of the wizard professors of Hogwarts. He used to love to make friends and relationships with all the star pupils. He was a bit of a sort of creep in that way.
Obviously, he had Harry there and Hermione, and Belby was there as well, who was not himself a star pupil.
What about your uncle Belby? For those of you who do not know, Marcus’ uncle invented the wolfsbane potion. Is he working on anything new?
You let my dad get on. Focus, my dad is just potions of rubbish. The only potion worth having is a stiff one at the end of the day.
Now, Marcus Belby really could not give a monkey’s about the wolfsbane potion. He has just been invited along to Slughorn’s supper because of his famous uncle. Marcus Belby is just really interested in his pudding.
For those of you who do not know, Marcus’ uncle invented the wolfsbane potion. Is he… And he was so delightful that day, and I did so many takes, and you guys have got the outtakes.
My overriding memory is I got him to do so many takes, so many times eating that bowl of pudding. It was a good job he was not diabetic. He was not diabetic as far as I know.
Or was he diabetic?
In my sort of pompous old director way, I remember saying to Robert, “You would be careful. Do not eat too many. Pace yourself, because if you have to eat, you will have a lot of takes, and you will have to keep eating.”
Luckily for the humor in the scene, he ignored my advice completely. He did not pace himself at all. He just ate and ate and ate.
So, the only potion worth having is the one at the end of the… Well, shut your mouth. He was just such a trooper, and he brought a wonderful energy to the scene.
He had enormous patience. He wanted to get it right. But we did make him eat a lot of pudding.
It is one of my favorite scenes in the film, actually.
He is coming.
I got involved with Employ the Dead through a 48-hour horror film challenge that we did. Aaron had this uni project, and he basically was like, “We need to get it done in this time frame.” I called up Rob and said, “We are going to film something in our local Sainsbury’s on a nightshift and we are going to do it as zombies.”
Because at the time we were nuts about Shaun of the Dead.
In walks Rob. There was just sort of a way he walked into the room. He kind of just filled up the space.
It was a confidence. There was just this illumination. He just went straight into character, and I was like, “Jesus, this is a confident bloke.”
The actual story was two friends working the night shift, and then the manager, who is played by Rob, eats some funny beef or something and it turns him into a zombie.
You are such a sweat. We had a night to just film this film, and it was 10 minutes long. It had a whole load of scenes, and we had to be out by like 7:00 a.
m. So the clock was ticking.
I think the last time I saw Rob was when we just finished shooting his sequence in the film, his death scene involving his character and Todd’s character, where he got into the box crusher. Then we got up. It was like, “Cut.
That is good.” He was like, “Right, I have got to go.” I know his brother was waiting in the car.
There is actually footage of it. I think one of the guys caught it on camera. It was just one of them normal things you do not even think about it.
Yeah, he came out and he just said goodbye, and we were kind of just looking up like, “Oh, see you later, mate. Yeah, thanks, you know. See you soon.”
Sort of thing. And then he went. And that was it.
He has got two knives on him. Waving them about. Waving them in my face.
My mate had a punch-up with him earlier. The police came, it was all calmed down. Now, calmed down with two knives.
The 23rd of May, it was just a normal day, really. Rob was going off to the Metro, like he usually did, down his local. I did not fancy it that night because I was not old enough to get in the bar, so I found it hassle trying to get ID constantly.
Rob had gone down to the pub, over 18’s bar, and I had said, “Please be back by midnight.”
I remember getting a phone call from Rob, saying, “Oh, come down Metro bar, it is lively. I want you there.” So I went down to the Metro bar.
When we got in there, it was very busy, like he said. We were all having a laugh, having a drink. I remember it was getting dark.
I think I was starting to leave with Callum. There was some of our girls outside. A lad I had never seen before was just standing there.
I remember he was shouting stuff at the girls. I do not know what he was saying, really. He was being rude to them in some capacity.
One of my friends sort of pulled him up on it, and that is when a bit of an altercation started. A bit of an argument. It turned into a bit of a physical sort of scuffle.
Then this lad and his mates took off. He went through the train station and sort of left. That was the end of that, really.
Did not think anything of it at all.
I sort of said goodbye to Rob. I was going with Callum. So we walked just up past the station, past Tesco’s, to the little car park.
Sitting in Callum’s car, we looked over the road. I just remember seeing Nick. So I saw Jamie and Callum walking to the car.
Said hello to them. As I came across the Tesco’s, I saw a couple of friends as well. Spoke to them and was just asking how it was that night and how busy it was, things like that.
They said it was quite a good night down there, really busy. Just over their shoulder, I saw someone walking past with a knife in their hand. So I said to them, “Watch out, boys.
That boy has got a knife.”
He overheard me, and they stepped away. Like I said, I was not being bullish about it or being like the big man. I literally just could not move.
He walked up to me and basically said, “What are you saying?” I said, “I am not saying anything.” That is when he had the knife up, basically towards my neck.
Me and Callum were sort of like, “What the hell?” So we drove over, pulled up onto the pavement to sort of, I do not know what the idea was, but we just wanted to sort of distract him, maybe. As we pulled up onto the pavement, he turned around and looked at us.
That kind of distracted him. In hindsight, maybe gave me a chance to move away. But I was just watching what was happening there.
It did not faze him that a car drove up on the curb. He came up to the window saying, “You want some?” That is when he walked back around the car and basically said to all of us, “You are lucky it is not your night to die.”
I just remember ringing Rob straight away saying, “There is a boy with a knife. He has come back and he is coming down to the Metro. Get inside, get out of the way.
Just go. But he is coming down.” As he walked away, I called the police and I walked across the road parallel to him, described everything that he was wearing, where he was.
“So, where are you?” “I am outside the Metro bar. You need to get a police car down here now.”
“The fellow with the knife, where is he now?” “I am outside the Metro bar now.” “And what is his name?”
“I do not know. I cannot…” And I realized that they were not going to get there quick enough.
He was already by Metro bar at this time. So I kind of put down the phone, crossed the road, tried to catch up with everyone else that was outside the pub.
I remember getting out of the car, just shouting to everyone, “He has got a knife. He has got a knife.” No one really could hear because there was all still hustling and bustling, sort of leaving at this point.
Then he slowly came towards the front of the Metro bar, and people started seeing the knife and seeing what was happening. We then went over as well, over towards the front at this point. The bouncers had seen it, closed the front doors, and he was just stood there in front of the front doors, and they would not let him in.
I remember Rob getting very, very angry that this lad had pulled a knife on me. I remember him getting… He was so protective, so protective.
Everyone was shouting. Rob was shouting about pulling the knife on Jamie. A lot of the people were telling him to put the knives down.
At that time, I did not realize he had one knife.
Almost like possessed, really. He had a look in his eyes. I do not know if he is on something.
I do not know, but he was just very… Yeah, almost possessed. He had a knife pointed at me and my friends.
I was not the one to point it directly at me. I was standing sort of shoulder on to… I do not know.
I sort of thought maybe I could get him to the ground. And that is where I saw Andrew get stabbed.
I remember screaming. Getting really dizzy, passing out, getting back up. Passing out again.
The next I remember waking up in the back of an ambulance with my clothes cut off me, so I did not actually know I was stabbed. Did not feel… When I got stabbed, it felt like a little punch to the chest.
It was not… People were telling me I was stabbed outside the Metro bar. I did not think I was stabbed.
I just thought, really did not know what was wrong with me. People were putting pressure on my chest, and it is only when I got in the ambulance, woke up and had my clothes cut off me, that I saw a stab mark in my chest and blood coming out of my chest.
At this point, the lad has got two knives out, two big old knives. I had never really seen anyone with knives really before. No, I had not really.
I grabbed one of his hands, still not realizing that he had the other knife, and I thought, well, one way or another, we are going to stop this now. That is when I saw the second knife come down. I put my hand up in the way, and I saw the knife go into my hand and come out the other side.
It is not like a film or something like that. It seemed to go through so easily. There was no pain or anything like that, and the knife just come back out, and I thought, do not know what has been done.
It triggered something inside me. I just… I could not watch it.
So I remember just turning around and screaming. As I turned back, I just remember seeing Rob slumped up towards him with his arms around him. The lad had got both his arms together like this.
Rob was just slumped around him. I think he had one arm down and the other arm was just sort of trying to hold on almost, but yeah. With the knife there.
As soon as I saw that, I did not even think. I just ran straight over. There were a lot of people around him at this point, and we all just sort of bundled him into a bush.
At this point, I remember Rob saying, “I have been stabbed.” Callum sort of took him and put him down in front of the little wall just in front of Summerfield. He was laying on the floor, and I was sort of looking at him, and I did not know what to do.
I did not know what to do at all. It was going through my head, should I ring mum? It is late.
I did not really realize the extent of it, but I thought I better ring her.
I picked it up not thinking anything because I just thought he is ringing me to tell me he is late. He was hysterical, absolutely hysterical, and I was going, “Calm down. What is wrong?”
He said to me, “Mom, Rob has been stabbed.” She was like, “What do you mean he has been stabbed?” And I was like, “I do not know.
He has been stabbed.” And she was like, “Well, how serious is it?” And I said, “I do not know.
I do not know how serious it is.” I think it is when I had to put it into words and say it, that is when I was kind of like, “Shit.”
I just grabbed my car keys, went out to my car, and I do not remember driving to the Metro bar, but I do remember there was police cordon tape across, and Jamie ran up from under the bridge with a girl shouting after him, “Do not leave me, Jamie.” He just went to me, “Mom, quick, leave the car. Get down there.
Rob is on the pavement.” At which point the ambulance was there attending to him.
I remember hugging Mom. As I was hugging her, I could see over her shoulder that they were resuscitating him. I think in my heart I knew that he was probably dead then.
So that was hard to see. Then they put him in the ambulance and took him up to Queen Mary’s.
It was very late, close to midnight. I got a phone call from Rob’s mom screaming down the phone, saying, “Rob has been stabbed. Rob has been stabbed.”
Firstly, you are taken aback because it has happened too quick. The words were coming at me too quickly. So I quickly jumped in my car and drove to the hospital at Queen Mary’s.
It was about 15 miles away. I saw a couple of staff walking around with green overalls on. I was looking for the Knox family in particular, Rob Knox, who has been admitted with a stab wound.
They said he is in resus. And I thought, resus, the worst thing that could be apart from death, resuscitation. I start to panic.
I remember going outside and having a cigarette, and I did look up at the sky and I just thought to myself, “Please let him make it.” Because I knew it was really serious. But we stayed in the room for, I think it must have been 40 minutes, 50 minutes.
When I was traveling to the hospital, I said to myself, “If God was to spare my child, then I will go to church.” I am so stupid to say this, but, “I will go to church every Sunday.” Because you do not believe that your son will be dead or killed.
You believe he is injured. But a stab wound. So in that waiting room, when the door kept on opening, you literally held your breath.
I just remember the point when the doctors came in with two policemen. Then they said what they say on films, like, “I am sorry, we could not save him.” Once they said that, all hell broke loose.
I am screaming, shouting of disbelief, anger. And Sally fainted. That is Rob’s mom.
She had to be taken away once she came around for tests at the same time. But we just could not believe that Robert had gone.
He is my son. He has been stabbed. Why is he dead?
And it starts from that point, your whole life changes. To this day, I feel that I let him down. And that will always be the case.
I should not have to bury Robert. He should have buried me. That is the natural order.
And to bury your son, after that, this world changes completely. It is not round anymore. It is not fair anymore.
And that is what happened on that night.
It is another painful lesson in the danger of knife crime. A lesson that more and more young people are having to confront, however hard it is to come to terms with. According to friends who had gathered to pay tribute to Rob, when the fight started outside the Metro Bar in Sidcup on Friday night, he had only been trying to help others and protect his younger brother.
He looked into my eyes and he said, “Callum, I need help. I need help. I need you to help me.”
I sat him down and I laid him on the floor. I was just holding his hand. I was holding his head in my hands.
I was trying to talk to him, keeping him calm.
I vividly remember that first meeting with Colin and Sally. I think from recollection it was at Sally’s home. I remember explaining what we were doing, how we were doing it, the fact that we had a significant amount of resources on the case, the fact I was very confident about how we were moving forward, because they need to have confidence in us to be able to investigate the circumstances.
We need that trust and confidence with the victim’s family.
We would like to give thanks for all the support from the family and friends and those people who did not know Rob but have expressed their sympathy and shock. This comes in many forms, and there are flowers outside and texts and phone calls from people we know and do not even know, but we appreciate your support.
There was a vigil being held in Summerfield, where sort of it all happened in Sidcup. There was already press there. There were still people cleaning up the scene, and it almost brought back to life exactly what had happened and how serious things were.
It did not really kind of hit home until I got back down there. Although I knew Rob had passed and I knew all these other people were injured, it did not actually hit home how serious that night was until I got back down there and saw the amount of people.
We were just mucking about in the car park two days ago. It was beyond belief, to be honest with you, especially in the way that it happened. I just had not heard of that happen to a friend of mine or someone that I work with, and he was definitely not the sort of character in my mind that would have got involved in something like that at all.
So to hear that his life had come to the end in that manner was distressing, I think, for all of us.
We were actually on the set for After You’ve Gone waiting to start rehearsals, and Nicholas Lyndhurst, who played my dad, came in and broke the news to us. I just remember there being an absolute silence and complete disbelief. I mean, I had only been texting him the week before.
We did almost like everything together. He just took me everywhere he went with him. He was my best friend.
The weird thing about it is that it has happened so many times now. Your mind is constantly brought up to date day by day about another event, another stabbing. It is like the world has gone mad.
I had worked on high-profile homicides, but this was different in terms of it was Rob Knox. So he had a particular notoriety obviously linked to the Harry Potter series, and that drove a lot of media interest, which is actually very good in a homicide investigation because it becomes very difficult to keep it in the public eye. The reason we want to keep it in the public eye often is so we can use that media interest to appeal for information, for witnesses to come forward.
I remember them being outside our house sort of day and night pretty much. I left the house, and the press ran after me trying to take photos, trying to ask me questions. You know, what relation were you to Rob?
How did you know Rob? Can you tell us any more about what happened? I know the same was for other people as well.
Andrew Dolma actually had the police around his house talking to him, had the knock at the door, and there were two police there coming in to interview him. Told my mom and dad that they were part of the police, and we were letting them into my house, but at this point in time I had the police running into me anyways. The actual police in the house questioned them, and they were actually press pretending.
So that was the extent that they were willing to go through to get a bit of a story.
As part of that media interest again, which we had to manage with Colin and Sally, was the fact that there had been a previous failing with the suspect, and that previously he had been arrested, and at the time of the murder of Rob, he was on bail for a knife crime offense. Looking back, he had had other previous convictions for knife crime offenses. I think one of the questions that was posed of the Met at the time was, well, how come he was on bail?
Why was he not charged for that previous knife crime offense?
These past few weeks have been the hardest we have ever had to face. Nothing can replace our Rob, who we love and miss so much. We as a family have been living a nightmare on a daily basis.
Waking every day to face the fact that Rob is no longer with us.
The Knox family are heartbroken but proud. Before his death, Robert had been put forward for a bravery award after chasing an assailant from a shop. Just after he died, we were then told his name was down for this award.
He would have been so proud. The victim of bullies several years ago, he spoke out about the problem, changed schools, and turned himself into a success, securing a role in the next Harry Potter movie along the way.
The court case, that was just as hard, really having to totally go through the whole night again. But you had to go through it all again with someone questioning you and making you feel like you are doing something wrong constantly. I think all of us were almost immature about the fact that we were going to court.
Not that we were messing about with it or anything like that, but we did not understand the seriousness of what was going to happen basically. And also having the person who killed your brother sitting there listening to you as well, with a smirk on his face. So with that whole process, it was very, very difficult, and I never really understood the sort of proceedings as such.
So I thought I was going there just to tell my story, and then I would say, “Okay.” Like you are telling the statement.
On the night, there was information, a name had been put forward, a description. He was quickly arrested by local officers before we arrived. When I arrived, somebody was in custody, which you might think, “Well, that is quite good because someone has been arrested.”
But I have to build the facts. You need to build a timeline, and you need to gather evidence, hard evidence. Because it is one thing thinking or being aware of who you think the suspect might be, but it is another going to the Crown Prosecution Service and saying, “Well, we think we have got sufficient evidence to charge.”
If you choose to carry knives on the streets of London, you will be vigorously pursued by the Metropolitan Police, and where the evidence exists, you will be prosecuted. What surprised me, what I found very hard in court, is that where you actually sit as a family, they are not actually too far away from you. You are now sitting in court with a guy that is defending himself, saying he was innocent, that killed your son.
When police liaison spoke with all of us, and they said that he had pled not guilty, it was almost like, yeah, that is a joke, though, is not it? Because he was caught there. Despite the fact he was the only person there with two knives, he said that people went to attack him, and then in effect they sort of launched themselves almost towards the blade of the knife, which was somewhat unbelievable and maybe inconceivable.
All them fears that I talked about before of regret, guilt, not making the right decisions, that is what they play on. I remember saying one thing specifically when Callum drove up onto the pavement. I remember the defense saying, “Not towards the defendant.”
And I was thinking, “No, he was not trying to run him over.” I said, “No, he just drove up on the pavement.” And he kept saying “towards the defendant.”
And I was thinking, that is the point I realized, “Oh, this guy is trying to catch me out here.” I never realized anyone was actually in there trying to catch me out.
Our position from the outset was that he armed himself, he went home, he got two knives. We know that the knives were obtained from the suspect’s home address in Sidcup nearby, so that was another thing that we had to secure. He came back down, and there was only one purpose to do that, and to engage upon serious violence with people.
We did identify that there had been a previous altercation with a group of Rob’s friends a week before, and as a result of that, a witness heard the suspect say, “I am going to come back in a week’s time and somebody is going to die.” We had that in witness evidence. It was quite chilling, and I think what is important to portray is actually the suspect throughout the whole process showed no degree of remorse.
He was in that same room as the parents of the person that he had killed. To him, it was nothing.
He got sentenced to life, which was 20 years, and that was without parole, so he was not allowed to get out any earlier than that. It is a relief for probably 30 minutes, I reckon. The fact that he has been found guilty of a crime that he committed.
Everything was there plain for people to see. The sentencing, all it means to me is that he cannot commit another crime for 20 years. All I think is in 20 years, he is going to be back out, and it is a countdown almost.
In my head, every year that we remember what Rob is bittersweet because we are not going to get Rob back. But sooner or later, he is going to come back, and that is how I feel. I hope a lot of people do not feel that way because it is not a nice way to feel, to be honest.
After the jury had delivered their verdict, two impact statements were read out to the court by Robert’s parents. In the first, Sally Knox described how Robert was so excited to be going out on the night he was killed that he did not even say goodbye. We have lost our son and our friend, and we will never be able to hold him and speak to him again.
I guess what needs to change is the whole system, for us to be able to say, “Actually, you are going to get caught with a knife and you are going to go to prison, and that is just it.” I am a believer, for whatever people think. If you are caught with a knife, 10 years now.
We have got to a stage where you have got to get 10 years. If you stab someone and you 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 them, it is life.
Rob’s mother will be back here in Leicester Square for the premiere tomorrow night. The family have all seen the film, and she says they will be on the red carpet with a mixture of pride and deep sadness. He done so well, Harry Potter.
For the premiere showing, I was going to buy him a dinner suit and a bow tie.
It is a dreadful, dreadful thing, and he was good. I did one scene with him, and you could tell just from that and the commitment that he entered into it with, you could tell from that that he was good. So it is a tragedy on many, many levels.
Dan, Rupert, Emma all wanted to show some kinship and to reflect and honor the memory of Rob. We are all wearing white bands to commemorate Rob Knox, who was stabbed last year. It is just a memory of him really, just so he knows that we are thinking of him.
It was a very simple gesture, but I think a very important one and a very evocative one. I think that the cast and the crew did their best really to rally and hopefully represent for Rob even though he could not be there.
Out of the tragedy of losing Rob, the family and Rob’s friends have created this foundation, have created this positive statement, and that is why Rob’s story is important. Not just the tragedy of losing him and the waste of that talent, but also the positive things that the foundation is achieving coming from that. The positive message that foundation sends into the world.
It is a shame that it is important to sort of platform this so much now. It is more important than ever.
You definitely have to credit Rob Knox through their various ways that they are trying to improve young people’s lives in their communities, with saving lives in the Rob Knox one, because they are getting people away from a violent lifestyle into something far more positive and creating things that will hopefully then go on and help future generations as well. I am in full support of the Rob Knox Foundation. Staggeringly, the figures and the numbers seem to be rising every year for knife crime or knife deaths even.
So anything that sort of prevents future generations from having to go through what Rob’s family have had to, I am in full support of it.
Tonight is about a dinner. It is in aid of Rob’s memorial fund, and we are collecting money for two reasons really. The first reason is to educate children about street crime, getting in early, teach them to respect each other.
We have been to prisons. We have spoken to murderers, and trying to turn people around. The second reason is to carry on things for Rob’s name in the field of film and theater.
We have sponsored a short film about knife crime.
What about you? Go on. Get away from my house.
Who is this? Off, mate. So what?
Yeah, you owe me. My character in the film was a dad, but went out and confronted a gang on an estate, and I got to tell you, as a father you would probably do that, and it is probably not the right move because you are going to end up one way, you know. I was actually a knife carrier in it.
So it was quite poignant for me to play that part, but I felt it was quite important for me to do that.
Coming in? You are the big man now, eh? You…
No, off. It is not about the justice, yes. Once it has happened, you want to catch these people and you want to bang them up.
It is about prevention. I am a believer in the fact that if you have police on the ground there, protecting our children, protecting us, then a good percentage of this crime will go away. Yeah, you cannot point a finger at any one person or any one thing or any one group of people as who is to blame.
It is a total collection. Poverty, lack of provision for young people, what is happening in the home, not enough male role models, just lots of stuff going on.
Do you want your parents to come to your funeral? What about your siblings? What about your brothers?
Get off the streets. Get an education. This is a sense of belonging, because I think there is a lot of society, there is Generation Z, and there is Generation Question Mark, who really do not know where they belong or where they are coming from.
Rob Knox’s dad, Colin Knox, is on the line now. I wonder if Rob had not been a successful actor whether people would have heard your story in a way. No, I think it might have been two lines in the local newspaper, and that would have been it.
I am pretty sure there are lots of mothers and fathers out there that loved the same more, but cannot. Unfortunately for us, we had that platform.
I think what the foundation is doing is brilliant, and it is so broad. The Rob Knox Film Festival is particularly important these days because it does give that platform to young filmmakers to go out there and put their films on the big screen. Just bringing an alternative approach to the problem and an imaginative approach.
The Rob Knox Film Academy gets kids off the streets and gets them involved again in filmmaking.
Hey. Cool. And now we are rolling.
Roll one, scene… I would have loved to have had something like this when I was growing up with Rob. And again, that is a testament to his name, you know, continuing on like a legacy.
And cut.
I do not think I let him know how proud I was of him. The thing is, I never got to say goodbye to Robert. He was a massive, massive character.
The bit I miss most is the part of me that is missing, I am guessing.
Nothing is ever going to replace the fact that you have lost a brother. I think that is the hardest bit for me. Every little thing could be this awful.
Every little thing is great. On your best day, you are a lion, but there are a lot of other days when we are just trying. We are just trying.
We are just trying to be. Trying to be.
