A JURY will retire on Monday (Mar 2) to decide whether a 21-year-old man is guilty of murdering Rob Knox.

The Old Bailey jury heard summing up from Judge David Bean today (Feb 27), reminding them of the eye-witness accounts given to the court over the last three weeks.

Karl Bishop is accused of murdering Mr Knox and stabbing five of his friends outside the Metro Bar, Station Road, Sidcup, on May 24 last year.

Witnesses had described how Bishop stood outside the door to the bar with two knives.

Many agreed that a semi-circle of people, including Mr Knox and some of his friends, formed around the defendant.

And several people, including doorman Musa Balogun and friend Tom Hopkins, said Mr Knox needed to be held back, having heard his younger brother had been threatened by the defendant earlier.

The court had been told that some people had shouted to Bishop to put the knives away.

Witnesses such as bar-goer Michael O'Rourke, said they did think Bishop had put his knives back in his pockets before the first person to be stabbed, Andrew Dormer, punched the defendant.

Others also described seeing a bottle being thrown at the man as he stood outside the doors.

During the subsequent melee friends of Mr Knox, Charley Grimley, Dean Saunders and Nicky Lee Jones were all stabbed.

Many witnesses described Mr Knox as getting the defendant in a bearhug before he too was stabbed.

Others then saw Bishop pushed into a flowerbed where he was disarmed and where, it is alleged, Mr Hopkins was stabbed in the head.

The judge also reminded the jury that descriptions of chairs and bottles being thrown during the fight had been given as evidence by eye-witnesses.

Bishop, of Beaver Lodge, Carlton Road, Sidcup, claims he was acting in self-defence and denies murder and five counts of wounding with intent.

The trial continues.