A REGULAR customer at the bar where Rob Knox was killed has described what happened on the night of the stabbing.

James Hayes saw Karl Bishop, the man accused of Mr Knox's murder, trying and failing to get into the Metro Bar on May 23 before he jumped over the wall of the smoking area to get inside.

Five minutes later he heard shouting from outside and saw members of a group including Rob Knox and Nicky Lee Jones "pile on top" of Bishop.

Around one hour afterwards Mr Hayes and a friend were talking to Mr Knox in the Sidcup bar about his role in the new Harry Potter film when he suddenly ran off through the fire exit.

Mr Hayes saw what happened next from the bar foyer windows, watching as the defendant stood outside the bar with 10 to 15 people in front of him.

The witness heard a girl's voice shouting: "He's got a knife."

From where Mr Hayes was standing, with Bishop's back to him, he could see the defendant then appear to lift up his shirt, which drew an instant reaction from the crowd.

He said: "The group in front of him grabbed anything they could - bottles, bricks, glasses."

Then someone behind Mr Hayes started banging on the windows and the defendant turned around to look the witness in the face.

Mr Hayes said: "I wouldn't call it really smiling - it was more of a smirk, as if to say 'what you gonna do?'"

The witness saw Mr Knox grab Bishop in a bear hug with his arms around his body as though he were "trying to restrain him".

He said Bishop then appeared to punch Mr Knox to the side of his body.

Mr Hayes described the scene when he made it outside.

He said: "There was glass, blood, there were bodies lying everywhere - girls screaming, crying."

Earlier at the trial Victoria May, a 17-year-old cousin of the Knox brothers, told the court she had heard Bishop on May 16 saying he "felt like terrorising someone".

After an altercation with friend Charley Grimley, she then heard the defendant say to him: "You were lucky because I was going to knock you out then."

Bishop was then involved in a fight with up to 10 people, including Rob Knox and some of this friends.

Bishop, of Beaver Lodge, Carlton Road, Sidcup, has pleaded not guilty to murder and five counts of wounding with intent to cause GBH.

The trial continues.