Thursday, 11 June 2026 — Institute of Race Relations
Henry Nowak murder – let the facts speak for themselves
If only we lived in a country where facts were allowed to speak for themselves ‒ where the path to justice was not littered with the untruths of GB News and the distortions of politicians, desperate to plant the false narrative of anti-white ‘two-tier policing’.
As everyone knows by now following the trial at Southampton Crown Court, the Nowak family lost their teenage son, Henry, in December 2025 to a knife crime. In response they have called for knife crime to be treated as a national emergency so that the streets are made safer for all.
We know from so many family campaigns, notably that of the Lawrence family, who fought for eighteen years for a modicum of justice (and were spied on by the police in the process), that the Nowaks’ journey to establish the facts about their son’s death, and his treatment by police, will be a protracted one.
For their son, a student at Southampton University, was not just stabbed to death by Vickrum Digwa, he was failed by police. From the trial and the sentencing remarks of Judge William Mousley, we know that Digwa was a weapons-obsessed martial arts enthusiast with, at the least, a horribly distorted sense of religious honour, who attempted to hide his crime by presenting himself to the police, both in an emergency call through his brother, and at the crime scene, as the victim of a racist incident. Hampshire police officers arriving at the scene, in taking Digwa’s word for that, disbelieved Henry, treated him as a suspect and handcuffed him, even as he voiced extreme distress, telling them he had been stabbed and could not breathe.
No parent should have to lose a child to knife crime compounded by a police response so inhumane and degrading. To add to the family’s sorrow, Sikh community leaders – who have universally condemned the killing ‒ say that in 2023, community representatives at Digwa’s local Gurdwara had alerted police to his problematic behaviour, particularly theft of weapons, but the warnings were not adequately dealt with (the police deny this).
The family, having emerged from the harrowing experience of the court trial, which led to Digwa’s conviction and life sentence, will in September 2027 have to endure the equally harrowing experience of an inquest, where a jury will consider whether any act or omission by police or delay in treatment caused or contributed to their son’s death.
Duwayne Brooks, the friend of Stephen Lawrence who was, like Henry, treated as a suspect when Stephen was stabbed to death in 1993, has challenged claims that the police officers who arrived on the scene were biased against Henry because he was white. He believes that their response smacks of ‘blasé attitudes’ amongst frontline police, a kind of ‘lazy policing’ which has always been the Black experience but has now become widespread.
But for some politicians, determined to dominate the social-media-driven 24-hour news cycle, this is not a line of reasoning worth following. What is important for them is to establish that policing is framed by ‘political correctness and left-wing ideology ’ (Nick Timothy, Conservative shadow justice minister), by anti-white prejudice, for which the only correct response is ‘pure cold rage’ (Nigel Farage, Reform UK), by ‘identity politics [that] need to be consigned to the dustbin of history’ (former Met police officer Lord Davies of Gower), by ‘mass invasion of migrants’ and civilisational decline (US vice president J D Vance), not to mention religious exemptions for carrying knives and, of course, by two-tier policing, condemned by no less an authority on British policing than the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
The trial of Digwa and its aftermath ‒ in parliament, in the criminal justice system and on the streets where the far Right rioted following a Southampton Patriots ‘Justice for Henry Nowak’ rally, addressed by Tommy Robinson ‒ is covered extensively in our regular calendar of racism and resistance. As the Sikh community experience a racist backlash, we note that a Sikh family were attacked in Willenhall in the West Midlands, in a racially motivated incident which left a 72-year-old pensioner with a broken cheekbone and fractured shoulder. We also note the recent conviction of a young white man who, under the influence of cocaine, stabbed to death Saudi student Mohammad Algessim in Cambridge in 2023. Chass Corrigan received a life sentence comparable in term to that of Vickrum Digwa, but in the latter case, the attorney-general has received multiple complaints under the lenient sentencing scheme, and Restore Britain’s Rupert Lowe has called for the return of the death penalty.
As we go to press, following the stabbing of Stephen Ogilvie by Hadi Alodid, there has been a second night of sustained far-right violence in Northern Ireland, which has taken the form of ethnic cleansing and a pogrom against migrants with Sudanese, Romanian and Ukrainian families amongst those burnt out of their homes. We send our solidarity to all those in Northern Ireland, such as the Anaka Women’s Collective, who are mobilising to protect communities and raise funds to support people attacked, displaced and traumatised in the racist violence.
IRR News team
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe.
Calendar of Racism & Resistance
In this week’s Calendar, we highlight stories unfolding over the past two weeks on the trial of the murderer of Henry Nowak and its aftermath, as well as other news on far-right fascism, policing and asylum and migrant rights.
Find these stories and thousands more on our Register of Racism and Resistance database.
Two new roles opening at the IRR !
We are excited to announce we have two new roles to work with the IRR and Race & Class team.
You can find more information on either role via the vacancies page or on the links below.
Editorial Assistant for Race & Class
Deadline 5pm Monday 15 June 2026
Finance and Organisational Support Officer
Deadline 11:59pm Tuesday 23 June 2026
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