Henry Nowak’s Family Claim They Were Manipulated by Police

Henry Nowak’s family have said they were “manipulated in our darkest hour” by police after his murder.

The university student, 18, was handcuffed by officers as he lay dying from stab wounds, while Vickrum Digwa, his killer, was treated as a victim of racist abuse.

Digwa, who is Sikh, lied to police, claiming that Mr Nowak had made racial slurs, punched him and knocked his turban off in Southampton on December 3.

In an ITV documentary, Dear Henry: Our Fight for Justice, Mr Nowak’s family have said they felt “hoodwinked” by police in the immediate aftermath of his death, and the weeks and months that followed.

They allege that Hampshire police initially treated Mr Nowak as the aggressor and told them, incorrectly, that first aid had been administered immediately.

The family say they were not shown police bodycam footage of his final moments until the first day of Digwa’s trial, and allege that immediately after telling them about Mr Nowak’s death, police asked about his political views, as well as their own.

Lucy Ross, Mr Nowak’s mother, said: “I did think at the time, it’s a really strange question. You’ve just been told your son’s been murdered and then they asked that.”

Alexis Boon, Hampshire and Isle of Wight’s Chief Constable, admitted for the first time that his force “failed” Henry.

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The family said they began to doubt Hampshire police’s account of Mr Nowak’s murder on the night they were informed that he had died.

Katie Nowak, his stepmother, said: “Quite early on something didn’t feel right to us because we were being told that Henry was the aggressor, or it was certainly being alluded to.

“I do feel that we have been failed multiple times. I fear that we may have been manipulated in our darkest hours. And I fear that some decisions were made to try and protect the police and their reputation rather than help us as a family.”

Hours after being told Mr Nowak was killed, the family found a post on the police force’s Facebook page, which said “two individuals were attacked by an unknown man”.

Mrs Nowak continued: “We then knew that unknown man to be Henry, so even reading that was so shocking.”

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