An actor from the Harry Potter films has been stabbed to death.
Rob Knox played Marcus Belby (a student at Ravensclaw) in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince. He was drinking at the Metro Bar in Sidcup when he got into a fight and was killed. This is the second stabbing in the area in only two weeks - Knox even went to the same rugby club as the victim in that attack. However, police are not treating these two attacks as being linked.
The stabbing of the Harry Potter star has resulting in a rise in people calling for a crackdown on knives amongst young people in the UK. There is an increasing knife culture in the UK which is a great concern to the public, politicians and the press alike. People no longer feel safe on the streets at night with such a level of violence. There have been calls for more police on the streets.
This increase in the number of stabbings has come with the relaxation of licensing laws allowing pubs and bars to be open longer into the night. The change in the law was intended to lower alcohol related violence but has had the opposite effect. The intention was that bars would close at different times so the problem of everyone going out into the street at the same time would disappear. However, this has not happened. Instead, alcohol related violence has increased as evidenced by this latest Harry Potter stabbing.
