26 May – 9 June 2026If 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 |
Henry Nowak murder – let the facts speak for themselves
The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed are therefore those of the authors.
The article dismisses concerns about anti-white bias without addressing the fact that there was active national debate about police race guidance at the time.
Critics of the guidance argued that it encouraged differential treatment based on race, and police leaders later acknowledged that such guidance may have contributed to perceptions of unequal policing.
By failing to discuss that context, the article does not fully engage with the reasons why some people viewed the Nowak case as evidence of two-tier policing.
This article does what many people do, which is stop looking here, look over here instead.
We can do both!
“Pogroms” and “ethnic cleansing” eh? Your outfit isn’t above using inflammatory language then!
The former has a long history and specifically refers to persecution of the Jews. It’s not a catch all phrase.
But I doubt that Jews, anymore than white middle class students, register highly on your victim index. Cue double standards and the usual deflections.
For me until the police guidance omits the equity of outcome nonsense and has simply all to be treated equally under the law, there will continue to be claims of two tier policing and two tier policing.
This is my second post – sadly the facts do dpeak for themselves which is that the police preferred to believe the story invented by the racist claim by the sikh and his brother to what they saw on the ground – a young white male collapsed and obviously in distress and yet the police believed the sikh brothers against all the evidence at the scene. So yes the facts do speak for themselves – sadly only too clearing proving we DO have two tier policing.
I would like to know the ethnicity of the attending police officers. I feel it may be relevant.
I don’t think the skin colour, race or religion of those involved would have mattered in the slightest to the police.
We have a report of a very minor incident: a drunk student caused a disturbance. It’s not a high priority – no serious injuries, no weapons used. The family who called the police were ‘restraining’ the attacker.
The officers went there with that mindset, and when the ‘victim’ showed them barely visible injuries, it only reinforced their belief that this was a harmless incident – that they could take the student away, spend a few hours with him at A&E, and that would be the end of it.
‘I’ve been stabbed’ does not necessarily mean the wound is fatal. This was a ‘perfect storm’ – a December night: pale, cold skin is to be expected, several layers of clothing (making it hard to spot damage on black fabric) and the location of the wound meant there were no signs of bleeding. Severe hypoxia is causing Henry to slur his words and lose his balance. They were expecting a very drunk student – and that’s exactly what they saw. Confirmation bias, routine and rush played a part. And is it really possible that, whilst in the company of four people, someone could be fatally injured, yet they calmly waited for the police and didn’t even call an ambulance?
This ‘incident’ could just as easily have involved an all-white group, an all-coloured group, or any other mix. The accusations could have been of an assault out of jealousy, of accidentally bumping into someone whilst passing, or even over crooked teeth. The police would have reacted in exactly the same way.
We make our judgement after watching the footage at home, most likely several times over. They were there for just under three minutes before his heart stopped. By the time they arrived, Henry was already in such a state that he couldn’t say a single word – ‘chest’.
And the police officers didn’t realise they were dealing with a sociopath.
This is a terrible tragedy and an injustice that makes our blood boil at the very thought of it. But I don’t think any amount of training could prepare police officers for a face-to-face meeting with the devil.