Clashes erupt in UK city over racially charged case of police handcuffing dying student
Police face investigation for handcuffing 18-year-old Henry Nowak as he lay dying due to a racism accusation
Video of a dying student who was handcuffed by British police after being stabbed by a Sikh man and falsely accused of racially abusing his murderer sparked outrage on Tuesday, with protesters throwing bricks at police.
Eighteen-year-old Henry Nowak was heard repeatedly telling officers: “I can’t breathe” in police bodycam footage captured as he lay mortally wounded in December after a night out with his football team members.
Far-right figures have seized on the case, including firebrand Tommy Robinson, who spoke at a rally in the southern city of Southampton, where the murder took place, claiming police treat white British people as “second-rate citizens”.
Protesters then marched through the city centre towards the scene of the crime, where police blocked the road. Demonstrators attacked officers with bricks, bottles and bins.
Interior minister Shabana Mahmood condemned the “disgraceful violence” against police and said on X that “those responsible can expect to face the full force of the law”.
A judge on Monday
, 23, for at least 21 years for stabbing Nowak to death using a ceremonial knife with a 21cm blade.
When police arrived at the scene, Digwa lied to officers, telling them Nowak had racially insulted him and that he was the victim.
The footage, which was played during Digwa’s trial, shows police accepting the aggressor’s accusation, and rather than helping Nowak, initially handcuffing him despite his pleas that he had been stabbed and could not breathe.
One officer can be heard asking Nowak: “You’ve been stabbed, whereabouts?” before adding: “Don’t think you have, mate”.
Moments later, the student collapsed and became unconscious.
Speaking after Digwa was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court, Nowak’s father, Mark, described the police treatment of his son as “shocking”, “inhumane” and “degrading”.
“His murderer, however, was afforded decency. He was believed,” he said.
The family gave permission for police to release the bodycam footage. The force has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the bodycam footage was “harrowing” and called the investigation by the IOPC “absolutely right”, acknowledging there are “serious questions for the police to answer”.
Mahmood urged people not to allow the murder to “turn communities against one another”, in comments to Parliament.
Main opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and far-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for changes to police diversity policies.
Farage said: “We’re living in a two-tier culture … where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities”.
Badenoch accused Farage of “deepening divisions”, but also took aim at so-called “two-tier policing”, in which officers are seen as dealing with ethnic minorities more leniently.
On Tuesday evening, more than a thousand protesters gathered outside the main police station in Southampton, chanting: “Two-tier scum” and “Shame on you!” and waving British Union Jack and England flags.
Far-right figure Robinson told the crowd that “if Henry (Nowak) wasn’t white, he wouldn’t have been handcuffed” and that “as white people, we are treated as second-rate citizens by our own police force”.
Protesters, some wearing masks, then marched to a residential area near where the crime took place and attacked a line of riot police, chanting “scum”.
A group of around a hundred protesters pulled apart garden fences, threw bricks, flares and chairs, and rolled a flaming bin at police, who used a spray on demonstrators and whacked them with riot shields.
American tech tycoon Elon Musk posted on X an offer to fund a private prosecution against the police over its handling of the murder.
Digwa appeared in court again Tuesday with his brother, Gurpreet Digwa, 27, and his father, Moga Singh, 52, on weapons offences.
Digwa’s family apologised to Nowak’s family for the killing and for bringing the Sikh community into “disrepute”.
