Britain’s police watchdog is investigating how officers responded to the death of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed while critically injured after being stabbed in Southampton. The killer, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, received a life sentence this week
A young man was on the ground, bleeding from stab wounds, trying to make officers understand he was dying. Minutes later, a separate account was taking shape—one in which the attacker said he had been racially assaulted.
In Britain, the scenes have become explosive. Britain’s police watchdog has opened an investigation into the response to the murder of 18-year-old college student Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed while lying dying from stab wounds in Southampton late last year.
Nowak was stabbed multiple times during a confrontation with 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa. At trial, Digwa falsely claimed that Nowak had racially abused him during the encounter. This week, Digwa was sentenced to life in prison for Nowak’s murder. Yet outrage has grown—not over the sentence. but over what officers did in the minutes before Nowak died. with critics arguing that police were too quick to accept Digwa’s account and too slow to recognize that Nowak was critically injured.
The timeline starts on a December night in 2025. when Nowak was walking home after a night out and spotted Digwa carrying a religious knife. Trial testimony described a tense moment that began with Nowak. according to judge William Mousley. “perhaps cheekily” asking whether Digwa was a “bad man” while recording a video on his phone.
“I am a bad man,” Digwa responded, grabbing Nowak’s phone.
What happened next remains disputed. But Mousley said there appeared to have been a “physical struggle” as Nowak tried to retrieve his phone. During that confrontation, Digwa’s turban may have been “knocked, pulled or potentially punched” off his head. Digwa then pulled the knife and stabbed Nowak, according to the court.
Mousley also addressed the knives. Carrying a knife at all times is a strict requirement under Digwa’s Sikh religion, but the judge noted they’re usually small and worn around the neck. Digwa, Mousley said, was also carrying a second, larger knife that was clearly visible.
When police arrived, Digwa told them he’d been racially attacked. Officers found Nowak on the ground. but body camera footage shows them initially dismissing his repeated claims that he had been stabbed and couldn’t breathe. At one point, an officer can be heard telling him, “I don’t think you have, mate.”.
The judge said officers handcuffed Nowak for about a minute before recognizing the severity of his injuries and attempting CPR.
Public anger flared after the case was thrust again into the spotlight by the release of body camera footage this week. Demonstrations were held near the scene of the killing, and some protesters threw rocks, flares and other items at riot police while yelling, “I can’t breathe.”
The case has also landed inside Britain’s ongoing debate about race and policing. Nigel Farage. leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party. compared aspects of the case to the death of George Floyd in the United States and argued that police have developed what he called a “two-tiered” approach to policing.
“White lives matter, too,” Farage said in a video statement.
Reform UK posted Farage’s message with the line “We are living in two-tier Britain where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities,” a reference shared widely as the footage circulated.
After Digwa’s sentencing hearing Monday, Nowak’s father said he does not want his son’s death to be used to “create further division, hatred or tension.”
That plea sits alongside the formal scrutiny now underway. Britain’s Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating the officers’ response. The inquiry began the day Nowak died after the local police referred the case to the watchdog.
Hampshire Police Service later said that one of the officers involved in the incident has resigned, according to The Times.
Shabana Mahmood, the U.K. Home Secretary who oversees policing, said she fully supports the investigation but emphasized the framing. This is “not a case about racism. This is a case about murder.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the footage “harrowing” and said the police involved have some serious questions to answer regarding “accusations of racism informed the decision-making in this case.”
Not everyone believes the fight over motive is the right fight. A political commentator for The Telegraph. Sam Ashworth-Hayes. argued the outcome was driven by Britain’s policing standards after a landmark racist murder. He said Nowak’s death was a “natural outcome” of the U.K.’s “Macpherson principle. ” which emerged in the wake of the 1993 racist murder of Stephen Lawrence. a Black British teenager.
Ashworth-Hayes pointed to guidance from the College of Policing. It says police should “respond positively to allegations, signs and perceptions of hostility and hate,” maintaining a “standard for the priority response” to “hate crime and non-crime hate incidents.”
The facts in the case now sit in a charged space: a killer who claimed racial abuse. body camera footage showing officers dismissing Nowak’s cries. handcuffing while he lay dying. and a watchdog investigation aimed directly at what officers did—and when they did it. For Nowak’s family. for protesters who watched the footage. and for the public trying to understand how a death like this can happen in plain sight. the question is no longer only who stabbed Henry Nowak.
It is why, in the moments before help arrived, his condition was treated as something officers could discount.
Henry Nowak Vickrum Digwa Southampton stabbing police watchdog Independent Office for Police Conduct body camera footage handcuffed while dying Shabana Mahmood Keir Starmer Nigel Farage Reform UK racism policing debate
Handcuffed while dying?? That’s insane, I don’t even care about the sentence part.
So the watchdog is investigating the police because they believed the attacker’s story too fast? I’m just confused how nobody noticed he was bleeding out, like c’mon.
Not saying the guy wasn’t stabbed, but these stories always get mixed up. Like maybe Henry was being combative or something? Also “religious knife” sounds like it could’ve been taken wrong, idk. Handcuffs just seems like standard unless they thought he was the threat.
The part that messes me up is the minutes before he died. They accepted the attacker’s account and missed that Henry was critically injured… like why was he even handcuffed in the first place if he’s obviously hurt? And the whole racially assaulted claim—of course that’s gonna blow up online. This is the kind of case where everyone’s already picked a side before the investigation even starts.