Outrage over claims police ‘wanted to portray Henry Nowak as the aggressor’ in statement days after his death despite evidence Vickrum Digwa had lied to them
The police force at the centre of the Henry Nowak scandal has been criticised for trying to release a statement ‘portraying him as the aggressor’ three days after his murder.
Hampshire Police planned to publish a statement implying that the 18-year-old had assaulted killer Vickrum Digwa and his brother, according to reports.
Mr Nowak died in the early hours of December 4 after being stabbed multiple times by Digwa, who is Sikh and had lied to police about being the victim of a racially motivated assault.
A police statement released later that morning said: ‘It was reported two men had been assaulted by an unknown man.’ Officers told the Nowak family that the next update would also imply that the teenager was the initial aggressor, it is claimed.
But they later dropped that section of the statement, which only referred to an ‘altercation’ in its published form. At that point, police had substantial evidence that Digwa had lied to them.
Hampshire Police are also said to have risked collapsing Digwa’s trial by trying to issue a statement over so-called ‘disinformation’ – while proceedings were already underway.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advised the force that the highly unusual move would risk jeopardising the ‘integrity’ of the case.
Ameer Kotecha, CEO of the Centre for Government Reform, said: ‘These are appalling new details. As I have been saying, the no-questions-asked credulity with which the police treated Digwa’s false racism claims just goes to show how deep the DEI rot has become.’
Nick Timothy MP, Shadow Justice Secretary, also criticised the police for threatening the ‘integrity’ of the trial with ‘irresponsible statements’.
‘Equality before the law should mean that trials are fair, that we all have the same legal rights and that we are subject to the same rules. Sadly, it has been displaced by an ideology that seeks to treat us differently based on race or identity.’
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police have come under intense scrutiny for their conduct after they handcuffed Henry Nowak (pictured) and ignored his pleas that he had been stabbed
Vickrum Digwa (pictured) falsely told officers he had been racially abused and attacked
Digwa stabbed Mr Nowak with a ceremonial dagger after a night out in Southampton.
Instead of treating the first-year finance student as a victim, officers handcuffed him as he lay dying due to Digwa’s false claim that he was a racist thug.
Digwa was handed a minimum jail term of 21 years on Monday, before riots erupted in Southampton a day later.
Hampshire Police said today: ‘Following the opening of the trial and the media reporting that followed, a significant amount of mis- and disinformation was circulating online.
‘This included requests for information to be shared that had not been fully examined as part of the murder trial.
‘The intention of the statement was to remind the public that there were ongoing legal proceedings and that the law is clear that nothing could be published which could prejudice the trial. The decision not to publish was taken following advice from the CPS.’
Police diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies have come under scrutiny amid allegations Mr Nowak was failed by ‘two-tier’ policing.
Last year, West Yorkshire police had 19 staff dedicated to inclusion, costing £970,000 in combined salaries and benefits. The force also paid more than £360,000 to an external training provider.
Several policies are inspired by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and Royal College of Policing’s Police Race Action Plan, which was published in 2022 following the murder of George Floyd.
They include an ‘About Time’ timeline documenting events relevant to relations between the police and black people. One was issued to every force in England and Wales at a total cost of £97,000.
Meanwhile, the College of Policing paid £7,700 for a speaking ‘masterclass’ from Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a controversial lawyer who criticised police for kicking the Golders Green suspect while arresting him following the stabbing of two Jewish men.
Harrowing footage was shared of the moment police officers put Mr Nowak in handcuffs
The Police Race Action Plan has been criticised for suggesting that ethnic minorities should be treated differently from white people.
But Abimbola Johnson, who chaired a scrutiny board overseeing it, today defended the document and insisted efforts to combat ‘institutional racism’ have not gone far enough.
‘The metrics continue to show racial disparity across key areas of police contact: stop and search, use of force, strip searches, custody, misconduct, workforce experience and public trust,’ she said.
‘The independent scrutiny and oversight board’s own work repeatedly found that progress under the police race action plan had been too slow, too inconsistent and too poorly embedded to meaningfully tackle the racism it was created to combat.’
It comes as a Sikh lobby group called for a public inquiry into the ‘catastrophic multi-agency failures’ surrounding Mr Nowak’s death.
Dabinderjit Singh, the Sikh Federation’s chief executive of political engagement, wrote to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Justice Secretary David Lammy and Attorney General Richard Hermer calling for an inquiry and said misinformation about the murder weapon had been ‘highly damaging’ to Sikhs.
The letter said ‘serious questions’ remain about whether Mr Nowak’s death was preventable and it called the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s (IOPC) investigation into Hampshire Police ‘entirely insufficient’.
‘While criminal justice has been served against the perpetrator, the wider systemic failures exposed by this case demand immediate, independent and transparent investigation,’ Mr Singh wrote.
He said the conduct of police officers and cultural issues during the trial were among ‘catastrophic multi-agency failures’.
‘Local intelligence indicates that Digwa was well known to law enforcement and ‘on the police radar’,’ he wrote.
‘A wider inquiry must establish why this critical intelligence failed to inform the responding officers’ risk assessments, and whether systemic biases contributed to the immediate criminalisation of a dying victim.
‘A statutory public inquiry is the only mechanism capable of delivering accountability.’
Digwa used a ceremonial knife with a 21cm blade, which prosecutors said during the trial was a kirpan he carried as part of his Sikh religion.
While he was wearing a small ceremonial kirpan knife, his second blade, described by the trial judge as ‘a large Sikh dagger’, was used as the murder weapon.
‘Under the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 and its July 2022 statutory guidance, a kirpan is clearly defined and understood to feature a curved blade,’ the letter said.
‘The prosecution and police possessed the weapon for over six months; they knew, or ought to have known, that the blade of the weapon was straight, not of Sikh origin, and could not be a kirpan.
‘By allowing a convicted murderer’s false characterisation of the weapon to stand unchallenged in open court, the justice system facilitated a highly damaging wave of misinformation.’
Thousands of Sikhs marched in London on Sunday, marking the 42nd anniversary of the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, in which hundreds of people were killed.
Mr Singh said at the march that attacks on Sikhs have taken place ‘up and down the country’ every day since Digwa was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 21 years in prison.
Digwa had been investigated by police in 2023 on suspicion of stealing ceremonial blades from a Sikh temple in Southampton but no further action was taken.
The NPCC has said it will review its anti-racism guidance.
Today, a further six people were charged with offences including violent disorder following Tuesday’s riots in Southampton.
