Murderer, Bishop, already known to police

Karl Bishop is facing life imprisonment for the murder of Harry Potter actor Robert Knox, but he had been named as a suspect in other crimes two months before the murder, it has been revealed.

Mr Bishop, 21, was named to police as a suspect for an alleged burglary and knife point robbery months prior to Mr Knox’s murder in Kent last May.

Officers investigating the claims have yet to explain why they failed to speak to Mr Bishop or bring him in for questioning; despite the fact that he had a long and violent criminal record.

The inquiries in to the burglaries were still open in May last year when the murder took place, Mr Bishop had only been released from jail for slashing two men across the face for nine months before committing the crime.

Mr Knox, 18, who had just finished filming for the new film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, confronted Mr Bishop as he had earlier threatened his younger brother at knifepoint.

Scotland Yard admitted that the failure to contact Mr Knox earlier would cause “concern” to the public and the victim`s family.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has since been called in to investigate the matter and a force-wide review regarding all outstanding knife offences has been launched.

A spokesman for the Met said: “Lessons have been learned from what happened in this case and measures have been taken, including the introduction of a new system to monitor centrally the progress of action to arrest suspects for all violent crime offences, including knife crime”.

As well as the murder charge Mr Bishop was found guilty of wounding Mr Knox`s friend Dean Saunders, 23.

He was found guilty on a majority of other charges including wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to two other young men and for the wounding of a third.