Henry Nowak’s Father Says the Way Police Treated His Dying Son Was ‘Inhumane and Degrading’

Henry Nowak’s father has said the way police treated his dying son was “inhumane and degrading” as he called for the government to treat knife crime as a national emergency.

Mark Nowak spoke outside Southampton Crown Court after Vickrum Digwa, 23, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 21 years for the murder of the teenager.

Digwa stabbed Mr Nowak on a Southampton street, then claimed to police that the student had racially abused him, leading police to handcuff the dying 18-year-old.

He collapsed shortly afterward and could not be revived.

Mark Nowak said “justice in the eyes of the law has been served but justice alone is not enough”.

“We are calling on the government to treat knife crime as the national emergency that it is,” he said.

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“Let me be absolutely clear – we hold Vickrum Digwa solely and 100 per cent responsible for the brutal murder of our son. But Henry should not have died on the streets of Southampton in police custody. The way he was treated was inhumane and degrading.

“His murderer, however, was afforded decency. He was believed. He was not handcuffed when arrested. He was not handcuffed when transported to the police station.

“As far as we understand, he was never handcuffed at all.

“And, as Vickrum Digwa himself told the court, while under arrest for Henry’s murder, police even took him to the kitchen so he could choose his food. The contrast is unbearable.”

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