The British home secretary told Parliament on Tuesday that she fully supported the country’s police watchdog in investigating why several officers handcuffed a college student while he lay dying, in a murder case that shocked the country.
Henry Nowak, 18, was stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, 23, in December 2025, after the two men had a brief interaction in Southampton, a city in southern England. Mr. Digwa, who is Sikh and stabbed Mr. Nowak with a religious knife he was carrying, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 21 years, on Monday.
Mr. Digwa lied to the police at the scene of the murder repeatedly, falsely claiming that he had been the victim of a racist attack. Police officers arrested and handcuffed Mr. Nowak for about a minute, according to the judge who sentenced Mr. Digwa, before they realized he was severely injured and began administering first aid.
Police body camera footage released on Monday after the sentencing showed Mr. Nowak lying on the ground, saying “I can’t breathe” and telling officers repeatedly that he had been stabbed. One police officer can be heard saying, “I don’t think you have, mate.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which examines reports of police wrongdoing, confirmed it is investigating the police officers’ actions.
The case has been increasingly politicized online, with the right-wing populist lawmaker Nigel Farage claiming the police’s initial response was evidence of “anti-white prejudice.” He encouraged his social media followers on Tuesday to “respond with pure cold rage.” Elon Musk has posted multiple times in recent weeks about the case.
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, whose office oversees law enforcement, told Parliament that the murder was a “vile and violent crime” and said that Mr. Nowak’s family deserved answers “about what happened on that awful night and the actions of the police officers who arrived on the scene.” She described the body camera footage as “disturbing and tragic.”
But she also warned that “misinformation and inflammatory commentary is making a dreadful situation worse.” After one police officer unrelated to the case had been misidentified online, she said, he had received death threats and had to be relocated for his safety.
“We cannot allow this murder to turn communities against one another,” she said, adding: “We must condemn those who seek personal political profit from tragedy.”
At Mr. Digwa’s sentencing, Judge William Mousley said that Mr. Nowak was “a much loved, kind, hard-working and ambitious young man.” He described how the college student had passed Mr. Digwa by chance as he was walking home from a night out on Dec. 3. The judge said that Mr. Nowak had “perhaps cheekily made a comment,” asking if Mr. Digwa was “a bad man” — probably in response to seeing Mr. Digwa’s knife — while recording on his phone.
Mr. Digwa moved toward Mr. Nowak, said “I am a bad man” and grabbed his phone. The judge said that what happened next was unclear, but suggested there may have been a “physical struggle” as Mr. Nowak tried to retrieve his phone. It was possible, the judge said, that Mr. Digwa’s turban “may have been knocked, pulled or, potentially, punched off” his head. Mr. Digwa then drew his knife and stabbed Mr. Nowak.
The judge said that while it was a strict religious requirement for Sikhs to carry a knife, called a kirpan, at all times, Mr. Digwa had chosen to wear a second, larger dagger that was fully visible, unlike the small knives usually worn around the neck.
Mr. Farage, the leader of the Reform U.K. party, claimed in a video statement on Tuesday that the actions of the police showed that Britain had a “two-tiered culture” in which “the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities.”
Mr. Farage likened the footage of Mr. Nowak to the video of the killing of George Floyd, whose death in the U.S. in 2020 ignited outrage internationally and propelled the Black Lives Matter movement.
“What does he say? ‘I can’t breathe.’ Familiar words? Remember career criminal George Floyd, who died in appalling circumstances in Midwest America,” Mr. Farage said. He complained that fewer British politicians had condemned the police’s treatment of Mr. Nowak than had spoken out over George Floyd.
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, criticized Mr. Farage’s comments, saying he was deepening division. “He sees this as an opportunity to grandstand,” she added, speaking to “Good Morning Britain” on Tuesday morning.
She also noted that there are laws in Britain about what can be said about active criminal cases until after sentencing, to avoid prejudicing a jury, and that is why politicians had not spoken out earlier.
After Mr. Digwa’s sentencing on Monday, Mark Nowak said in a statement outside the court that his son had not “died with dignity” and criticized the police for the way they treated him. But he added that the family does “not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”
Derrick Campbell, the director of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the police watchdog, said the investigation into the police officers’ interaction with Mr. Nowak, including the use of handcuffs and the first aid provided, “remains ongoing.” The agency began its investigation on the day of Mr. Nowak’s death, when the police referred it to them for examination. The Hampshire police service said that one of the officers involved in the incident has resigned.
