Recently unveiled police body camera footage has shown that officers seemed to accept false claims from Vikrum Digwa, who said he faced racist verbal abuse from the late student Henry Nowak.
Earlier this month, authorities released a segment of the body camera footage that captured the tragic final moments of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old British-Polish student, in Southampton last year.
The three-minute recording ignited protests and riots after law enforcement handcuffed and arrested Nowak, disregarding his claims of having been stabbed and struggling to breathe. Disturbingly, as Nowak voiced his distress, an officer dismissed him, saying, “I don’t think I was stabbed, dude.”
Now, weeks post-trial, where Digwa was found guilty and sentenced to at least 21 years, police are starting to disclose further details about the critical moments leading to Nowak’s death.
Footage shared with the BBC by Hampshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) depicts the interaction with Digwa after he stabbed Nowak multiple times using a traditional Sikh knife, which he was permitted to carry under British law due to a religious exemption.
In the newly published video, Digwa repeatedly claimed he was subjected to racist insults, alleging that Nowak had called him “paki,” a derogatory term for South Asians. These assertions were ultimately rejected as fabricated during the trial; so was Digwa’s accusation that Nowak was “drunk.”
Digwa articulated, “He grabbed me and started grabbing me by the turban, pulling my hair, hitting me, and all sorts of other things.”
The footage captures officers probing how Nowak was stabbed, with one telling Digwa, “I didn’t say you did anything.”
“But I was racially attacked,” protested Digwa, to which the officer replied, “I know, I know.”
Throughout the publicized footage, the officers did not restrain Digwa in the same manner they did with a critically hurt Nowak.
Some have pointed out that the gradual release of this material might be a strategy by police to avert additional unrest and backlash concerning their handling of the situation.
Mike Neville, a former Detective Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police, remarked during a TalkTV appearance that “Hampshire Police seems to be administering this IV over time rather than all at once, so you might be able to almost forget about it.”
Neville further suggested that junior officers who responded to the incident may be being used as “sacrificial lambs” by higher-ups, indicating they were likely adhering to directives from above.
Concerns similar to these were voiced by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who previously warned that police could face repercussions if they didn’t prioritize claims of racism.
Farage contended that an anti-white ideology rooted in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles has permeated various levels of the British state, including law enforcement, leading them to favor ethnic minorities over white British individuals.
This announcement follows additional records released Wednesday indicating that authorities at the scene were unaware for nearly eight minutes that Nowak had been stabbed.
