'I hate the scumbag who killed my Rob'

THE heartbroken father of murdered Harry Potter star Rob Knox last night branded his son's smirking killer "a spineless scumbag."

Hugging younger son Jamie as they spoke for the first time since evil Karl Bishop was jailed for life, Colin Knox wept: "He took away one of the most precious things in my life.

"I hoped the jury would find him guilty. Nothing else would have been good enough."

Bishop never once showed a sign of remorse, repeatedly laughing and giving thumbs-up signs to pals at the Old Bailey in London.

But the callous killer was allowed to chicken out of hearing the emotional "impact statements" about Rob's loss by his family.

Colin, 56, said: "I thought, 'You spineless, gutless, coward. Now everyone knows what you are.' "

Referring to Bishop's disgusting conduct in court, Colin added: "That was one of the worst things. There was no sorrow, no regret and no respect for our family.

"I hate him. I hate what he has taken from me and I hate how he acted in that court room.

"He's nothing more than a scumbag and I don't like to waste time thinking about him."

Rob, 18, had just finished filming his role as Marcus Belby in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince-which is released in July-when Bishop stabbed him five times in the chest outside a bar on May 24 last year.

Struggling

The popular youngster had intervened when the 22-year-old thug threatened Jamie, his younger brother.

Jamie, now 18 himself, said: "Rob was my brother but he was also my very best mate. Nothing can ever replace him and I hate that guy for what he's taken from me."

The lounge of Colin's two-bed home in Greenhithe, Kent, features a shrine to Rob.

A white taekwondo jacket with "Rob Knox" sewn on it lies folded on a shelf. Above it is a picture of the beaming teenager clipped to a poem called Dry Your Tears.

Colin recalled the joy he and wife Sally felt when the boy he still calls Robert was born.

"I remember it so clearly. We were out at dinner with friends when Sally went into labour and we had to rush to the hospital.

"When I could see his head coming there was such a mix of emotions. The main one I remember is, 'Oh my God, what do we do now?'

"When we got home I held him in my arms, took him into the garden and said, 'Welcome to our family, welcome to our lives. I will always be here to protect you'."

Then he added, sadly: "But I wasn't. In the end he died without me there to help him."

Tough

Colin, who split with Sally shortly before their son's murder, recalled taking Rob for his first day at school. He said: "That was tough for me. I remember struggling to let go of his hand, to see him walking away from me. He was going into someone else's care. I was handing over my son and I was actually crying my eyes out.

"Robert was crying too, but I think that may have been because he saw me sobbing."

Colin told how the family had to move Rob to another school at the age of 13 after appalling bullying because he was overweight. He said: "Hearing that your child is sad or upset, or that people are hurting him is heartbreaking.

"As a parent you are meant to be there to protect your children, but you can't just walk into a school and do what you want.

"So we took him out. From then on Robert was a confident person and loved his acting. When he was cast for Harry Potter, it was one of his proudest moments.

"Me and his mum tried to keep him a bit grounded. We didn't want it going to his head too much. He was really enjoying life. Him and his friends would go out to bars, dress up in waistcoats and the like and drink champagne.

"He loved it and really had a good time and I'm glad he did, because he didn't know what was just around the corner."

Colin wept again as he relived the journey to hospital on the night Rob was stabbed. He said: "I made a pact with God. I told him that if he could just save my precious boy I would go to church every Sunday. I desperately wanted Robert to be okay."

Desperate

But at 1.10am a policewoman walked quietly into the waiting room to deliver the awful news that Rob was dead. Colin said: "We were totally numb. My ex-wife Sally shrieked with the blow of the news and was so overcome she passed out cold. The rest of the family just hugged, cried and kissed each other. We were desperate to comfort and console."

Grabbing a teddy bear, Colin said: "Someone told me I should have something I can use to be close to Robert so I got this Winnie The Pooh bear and wrote 'Rob' on his chest. It sits on my bed and I touch it before I go to sleep. I say goodnight and that's the way I say goodnight to my son and tell him that I love him."

Jamie, also an actor with appearances in shows including The Bill and A Touch Of Frost, told of his close bond with his brother.

He said: "We had the same group of friends, did the same after-school activities like tae kwon do and shared a love for acting. Every memory I have has Rob in it. For my whole life he was there and that's what I find so difficult-that someone has taken him away so quickly."

Jamie recalled Rob's delight at landing his Harry Potter role, saying: "He'd been getting a bit down because I'd got a few jobs recently and he hadn't. When that one came about he was over the moon. There was a little bit of jealously because I would have fancied a job like that. But mostly I was just so pleased for him. He was just thrilled to bits."

Jamie, who lives with mum Sally in Sidcup, Kent, told how a week before Rob's murder their group of friends had clashed with Bishop in the town's Metro Bar. The thug had stormed off with the warning: "I'm coming back next week and someone's going to die." True to his evil words, he returned next week and clashed again with Rob's pals before his own friends dragged him home.

But Bishop armed himself with two kitchen knives and returned to the bar seething with anger. Rob went outside to confront him after hearing Jamie had been threatened. As well as stabbing the young actor five times in the chest, Bishop knifed Rob's pal Dean Saunders, 22, in the neck, leaving him temporarily paralysed.

Jamie said: "Rob went mad because Bishop had threatened me. I remember seeing Rob had grabbed him, trying to hold him down when we all fell over. Then Rob was asking for help, saying he had been stabbed. I didn't really know what to do. I was scared but it didn't really dawn on me how serious things were.

"It was only when my mum arrived and I was giving her a cuddle that I saw the paramedics working on Rob. They were giving him CPR and that's when it hit me. I thought they only do that when they are trying to get someone back."

Jamie added: "Rob died protecting me like he always did and I am so proud of him. That's the sort of person he was and who I remember. He would always want to make sure I was okay."

Daze

Rob's death left Jamie in a daze. He remembers visiting the murder scene, which had been covered with flowers, but couldn't cry.

He said: "It was like when Rob died, a part of me died too. I felt like all of my emotions had been ripped from me. I went to the scene lots of times, saw our friends and family breaking down but something in me was missing.

"Of course I've cried a lot since then, but for those few days I felt like I was on another planet."

Speaking about the murder trial, Jamie said: "I couldn't face looking at Bishop until the moment he was sentenced. Then I couldn't stop staring at him.

"No sentence will ever bring Rob back, but the only thing that would come close to being satisfactory would be if life meant life. I want Bishop to die in prison, not be free to pick up his life where he left off in 20 years. Rob's gone forever, so should his killer."

Both father and son are determined that Rob's death will not be in vain. Colin plans to get involved in anti-knife initiatives while Jamie wants to "win every acting award out there" for his brother.

Jamie said: "Rob will always be by my side. I will do it all to make him proud."

This article has 27 comments