A young actor is stabbed to death just days after filming his big break in the Harry Potter franchise.
18-year-old Rob is out celebrating his big break in Harry Potter when he learns that his little brother has been threatened at knife point. He and his friends rush to disarm the man but during the struggle, Rob is stabbed several times and is killed. Now his family must try to navigate their grief and anger while under the ever-watchful eye of the invasive British media machine. Meanwhile, more young people than ever are losing their lives on the streets. Something has to be done.
On the 24th May 2008, Britain woke to the news of another teenager murdered in a knife attack. An 18-year-old actor named Rob Knox, who had just finished shooting Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, was stabbed several times as he tried to protect his younger brother. With his family pulling together to try and make sense of the heart breaking news, which they had only just received, word of his connection to Harry Potter had spread to TV news and tabloid outlets, who exploded onto the crime scene and into their lives forever. The Knox family would have to live out their worst nightmare under the glaring lights of the mainstream news machine: from the police investigation, through to the court case and eventual conviction of Rob's killer. But with all this attention on the case, with all the column inches, all the discussion and all the noise, could something good come from Rob's untimely death?
Known to his friends and family as the fun and mischievous one, Rob is a born actor. He secures his first TV appearance himself without any representation and spends his teens making movies with his friends. He gets his TV break on a BBC sitcom before scoring a role as Marcus Belby in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Director David Yates and actor Jim Broadbent remember his talent and energy through exclusive behind the scenes footage and outtakes on set. A matter of days after wrapping on the movie, on a night out celebrating with his friends, Rob hears that his younger brother Jamie has been threatened outside the local bar by a man wielding a knife. He immediately runs to protect his brother and along with his friends, attempts to disarm the man. Things don't go to plan and they discover, too late, that the man has a second knife. Rob tries to hold the man's arms down but suffers multiple stab wounds before he is stopped. Jamie watches in disbelief as paramedics try to resuscitate him and Rob is later pronounced dead in hospital in the early hours of the morning.
The full attention of the British press is unleashed on the family and friends of everyone involved. Hordes of photographers and reporters camp outside their houses, chasing down anyone who goes outside. One of Rob's friends who was also injured in the attack, is accosted in his home by two members of the press posing as police officers, trying to get a 'scoop'. It then transpires that Rob's killer had been convicted of two knife assaults before and was already a suspect for a violent burglary that had occurred two weeks prior to the attack. The police had not arrested him. The court case brings all the heartache back to the surface when Rob's family are confronted by his killer, 'sitting there with a smirk on his face.' Despite the overwhelming physical evidence and eye-witness statements, the case proceeds when he enters a 'not guilty' plea. The defendant, whom the family have requested to remain unnamed, claims to have been acting in self-defense, which leads to accusations from the defense lawyers against Rob's teenage brother and friends, that they had lied in court and even been the cause of Rob's death. The killer's lack of remorse, which horrifies Rob's family, does not go unnoticed by Judge Bean, who issues the following statement: 'I do not think it is proved that you intended to kill Robert Knox. The truth is that you simply could not care less whether you killed him or not. Your lack of regret, let alone remorse, was truly chilling'. Rob's killer is sentenced to twenty years in a maximum-security prison.
In a show of strength and resolve, the family use the profile of the case created by the media, to set up The Rob Knox Foundation in his memory. Over the past eleven years the foundation has offered awareness training on knife violence, as well as training in the arts for young people interested in TV theatre and film. Actor Ray Winstone, who is an active voice against knife violence, worked with the foundation to produce a short film based around the subject, which sought to raise awareness in the UK. But, for everything achieved by the family, and for all the young people affected by the foundation, youth violence continues to ruin lives and Rob's absence is still felt every day by those who love him. His brother Jamie, on a visit to the Harry Potter Studios Leavesden, reflects that what he misses most about Rob is, 'the part of me that's missing.' As he enters Olivander's wand shop, he looks at the names of the cast and crew written on the wand boxes for one name in particular. He finds what he is looking for and quietly remembers his big brother. His best friend. Robert Knox.
