Starmer, Mahmood condemn handling of stabbed student’s final moments

PRIME MINISTER Sir Keir Starmer and home secretary Shabana Mahmood both condemned the “awful, shocking case” of a dying student handcuffed by the police after he was stabbed by a Sikh man who lied about being racially abused in the attack.

Footage released on Monday (1) showed Henry Nowak, 18, repeatedly telling police “I can’t breathe” as he lay mortally wounded in December after a night out with his football team members in Southampton.

The video, which was played during Nowak’s murder trial, shows police believing the accusation by Vickrum Digwa, and rather than helping Nowak, initially handcuffing him despite his pleas he had been stabbed and could not breathe.

He died shortly after being handcuffed by police. Once they realised he was injured, they uncuffed him and started CPR.

Starmer described it as “senseless murder” while Mahmood told the Commons on Tuesday (2) not to allow the murder to “turn communities against one another”.

A judge on Monday jailed 23-yearold Digwa, for at least 21 years for stabbing Nowak to death with a 21cm (eight-inch) blade.

Nowak’s family gave permission for police to release the bodycam footage, which has sparked outrage and a nationwide debate about two-tier policing.

Mahmood rejected the allegation and it is understood there will be no change in allowing devout Sikhs to carry the kirpan as an article of faith.

In her statement to the Commons, the home secretary paid tribute to the Nowak family’s public response, saying she wanted to acknowledge “the powerful words” they had spoken after the sentencing on Monday.

“They deserve answers, in particular, about what happened on that awful night and the actions of the police officers who arrived on the scene,” Mahmood said.

Vickrum DigwaEastern Eye

On calls to limit the right of Sikhs to carry their ceremonial knife, she said, “Let me be clear: carrying a knife for the purpose of religious observance is one thing. Using it, as so tragically occurred in this case, is quite another: it is a vile act. A crime of the utmost severity and it will be met with the severest punishment.”

The home secretary quoted from the Nowak family statement, saying, “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”

The family quoted the words of the prosecuting lawyer and Mahmood quoted again: “This is not a case about Sikhism. This is not a case about racism. This is a case about murder.”

Starmer, addressing the cabinet on Tuesday, said what happened to Nowak in his final moments was shocking and that it was right the police watchdog had launched an investigation.

When police arrived at the scene in Southampton, Digwa lied to officers, telling them Nowak had racially insulted him and that he was the victim.

One officer can be heard asking Nowak: “You’ve been stabbed, whereabouts?” before adding: “Don’t think you have, mate.”

Moments later the young student collapsed and became unconscious.

The police force, Hampshire Police, has apologised.

In court on Monday, Judge William Mousley KC told Digwa he had brought “misery and a lifetime of loss upon his family and great sadness to everyone who knew him.”

Digwa’s actions had “stirred up racial tension in Southampton and across the country, which have made many Sikhs worried about their safety”, the judge added. The fatal encounter took place on a street in Southampton when Nowak, who was walking back to his student accommodation, came across Digwa. The judge said Nowak may have “cheekily” suggested that Digwa was a “bad man” — a phrase Digwa himself had used during the encounter, which Nowak had partially filmed on his phone.

Digwa was carrying two knives at the time, a small kirpan around his neck and a second, larger blade with a 21-centimetre edge tucked in his belt, which he used to stab Nowak five times in the legs and chest. The judge noted it was a “fundamental principle” of Sikhism that the kirpan “should never be carried for an offensive purpose.”

The judge firmly rejected Digwa’s claim of racial abuse, saying: “I am sure that Henry said nothing racist. You are the only person to make that claim and it is completely at odds with his previous character.” He added that Nowak was “defenceless” and “was never able to put his hands up to defend himself.”

Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC described Digwa as “a man with a weapons obsession” who was “skilled with weapons, trains with weapons, sleeps in a room with weapons.” He said the attack was “sustained” and called for a starting point of 25 years, citing aggravating factors including Digwa’s decision to film the victim fleeing and his false account to police, which “compounds the natural grief and loss of the deceased’s family.”

Kiran KaurEastern Eye

Speaking after Digwa was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court, Nowak’s father Mark described the police treatment of his son as “shocking”. He called Nowak’s treatment “inhumane and degrading... his murderer, however, was afforded decency. He was believed”.

Mahmood acknowledged that the footage released was “disturbing and tragic”. She noted the case had led to unacceptable threats against police officers and that inflammatory commentary was making a dreadful situation worse.

“We must condemn those who seek personal political profit from tragedy,” she said.

Mahmood added that for public services, the only consideration they should weigh is the risk a person poses, not race or religion.

On previous efforts to tackle racism in policing she said, “Whatever changes are made, it is important that nobody overcorrects or course-corrects such that all of us as citizens are no longer equal before the law.”

Conservatives leader Kemi Badenoch called for citizens to be treated equally by police regardless of ethnicity.

“No two-tier policing, no believing that racism only happens to ethnic minorities. It happens to everyone,” she told Good Morning Britain.

“And the police need to be trained like that, not with the terrible anti-racism training, which is just reverse racism and reverse discrimination,” she said.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said after Nowak’s death there has been “absolute silence, proof ... we’re living in a two-tier culture in this country where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities.”

Badenoch accused Farage of “deepening divisions” with his comments.

Meanwhile, a prominent Sikh philanthropist warned against punishing an entire faith community for the actions of one individual.

Amrit S Maan OBE said proposals by Reform UK to repeal the legal exemption allowing Sikhs to carry the kirpan in public were misguided, warning that doing so “would not address the root causes of violence” but would risk “undermining religious freedom and alienating law-abiding citizens.”

Maan noted that Digwa had carried not only a small kirpan around his neck, but also a larger blade with an eight-inch blade openly displayed over his clothing. “The moment any bladed article is used unlawfully to harm another person, it ceases to be a matter of religious observance and becomes a matter for the criminal law,” he said.

Southampton Test MP Satvir Kaur said the murder of Nowak has raised important questions about knife crime and policing.

Digwa appeared in court again on Tuesday with his brother, Gurpreet Digwa, 27, and his father, Moga Singh, 52, on weapons offences. All three face charges of possession of offensive weapons including a flick knife, an extendable baton, knuckledusters, a machete, and swords.

Digwa’s brother and father were granted bail until the next hearing in July.

Digwa’s family apologised to Nowak’s family for the killing and for bringing the Sikh community into “disrepute”. The convicted killer’s mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, will be sentenced on July 17 for assisting an offender by taking the knife back to the family home.