Father of murdered Harry Potter star angry at far right group over race murder leaflet

Father of murdered Harry Potter star angry at far right group over race murder leaflet

The parents of two young men struck down in brutal killings, including a star of the Harry Potter films, have lashed out at a far right political group for using the boys’ images and incorrectly claiming they were white victims of racial murders.

Swanley-based Britain First was set up by Paul Golding, who was a British National Party councillor on Sevenoaks district council until he resigned in February, 2011.

And rather than admitting Britain First should have sought permission from the families to use the pictures for political purposes, he said the parents should have got in touch with the group to make sure they were removed.

After leaving the BNP Golding launched his own extremist group, which says: “We oppose the colonisation of our homeland through immigration and support the maintenance of the indigenous British people as the demographic majority within our own homeland”.

A email flyer sent out this week by the organisation headlined “RIP the white British victims of racism…will YOU help honour their memory?” includes pictures of Harry Potter star Rob Knox and teenage victim Michael Chapman – much to the distress of their families.

Rob was 18 when he was murdered in May, 2008, in Sidcup, just after he’d finished filming his role as Marcus Belby in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He had already signed up to appear in Deathly Hallows.

He died after being stabbed outside a bar when he intervened in a fight to protect his brother Jamie, 17 at the time, from two men, one of whom was armed with a pair of knives.

Karl Bishop, now 25, from Lewisham, was found guilty of murder in February, 2009, and jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years. It was never stated at the hearing that race was a factor in his death.

But the Britain First flyer signed by Golding reads: “These poor souls – all of them members of our own nation and our own flesh and blood – have been deprived of life by violent immigrant racists in horrific and brutal attacks.”

But Rob’s father Colin was furious his son’s image was used without his permission and thanked KoS for bringing it to his attention.

Mr Knox told us: “I am annoyed. We were never approached for a photo to be used. His mother [Sally] is also on there too, and I know she won’t be pleased either.

“My son was British and the guy that killed him was mixed-race, but he was British, too. It was not a racially charged attack – he was just a nutcase.

“I am not in favour of this at all; I am not in favour of my son’s photograph being on there, and I don’t wish to be associated with this in any way.

“I don’t support what they are trying to do – they have their facts wrong anyway. It was not a racial attack.

“My son has been dead for four years and I want him to lay there in peace. I do not want his name used in this fashion.

“I want to take this to the Prime Minister – it’s just wrong doing something like this. It will upset all the family.”

In 2006, Michael Chapman from Sittingbourne, was 16 when he was kicked and punched to death for chatting to a girl. Lee Cowie, who is white, was jailed for four years for manslaughter. Again, race was not mentioned as a factor in his death.

His parents Lloyd and Sue set up a charity to combat violence among young people and have just won an assurance of government funding.

The former Grenadier guard said POCAV, or Protect Our Communities Against Violence, will be up and running shortly.

He said: “I am open minded when it comes to politics. But this flyer is just wrong. The claim it was a racial attack is just not true.

“It was a white guy who killed him. I am not a racist person – I have black friends. They have got the context all wrong. I am fuming about this.

“It would have been nice if they had got in touch with us to ask for permission to use this picture.”

He said the stress of losing Michael is still a heavy burden for his family. Mr Chapman said: “Sue and I came very, very close to splitting up, closer than anyone can think. I was blaming others and Sue and I were arguing a lot.

“This is why we need to make POCAV work and stop Michael’s memory being abused like it is on this leaflet.”

The Britian First website describes the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence as a “cause celebre of the liberal left.. still being rammed down our throat”, and “a 20-year witchhunt while a multitude of British white victims of racist murders and attacks are completely ignored or marginalised”.

Britain First chairman Paul Golding said of the pictures of the Kent teenagers: “Let me take a note of these and try to get them removed.

“I will take a look at that. I can confirm though that if they are upset at the use of the images in our campaign all they had to do is ring our office and we would have immediately removed them from our literature.

“We have received no phone calls or inquiries whatsoever. In fact, to the contrary, we have received a lot of interest and support of this campaign.”

When it was pointed out the two teenagers were not the victims of racial attacks, he said: “They wasn’t? Right, OK. Well, as I said, I will look in to it and I will remove them.”

The images have since been removed from a poster on the group’s website but are still included in a video.

Kent News