The family of murdered student Henry Nowak have described how their lives were transformed twice: first by his death in Southampton, and then by footage showing him being handcuffed by police while fatally wounded.
Mr Nowak, 18, was stabbed with an eight-inch ceremonial dagger on December 3 last year by Vickrum Digwa. His relatives have spoken publicly about the case for the first time in a documentary, Dear Henry: Our Fight For Justice.
His father Mark and stepmother Katie recalled the moment police arrived at their home to tell them he had died.
“I jumped out of bed and I saw the police car on our driveway,” Katie told ITV. “One of the police officers was holding his hat in his hand, and I just knew straight away that something horrific had happened.”
She said Mark fell to his knees after hearing the news. “He let out a cry that I’ll never forget,” she recalled.
Mark said: “I just remember saying ‘It’s Henry’ and breaking down in tears. It’s just unbelievable pain.”
Mr Nowak’s mother Lucy Ross remembered officers arriving in the early hours and asking: “Do you have a son called Henry?”
She said they told her: “There’s been an altercation. And unfortunately, your son has passed away.”
Lucy’s daughter Olivia, Henry’s older sister, had alerted her to the police at the door. “No words, no words can explain that feeling,” Lucy said.
Footage of Henry Nowak’s arrest
The family later watched body-worn camera footage of the aftermath of the stabbing. In the recording, Mr Nowak repeatedly says: “I’ve been stabbed,” before an officer replies: “Don’t think you have, mate.”
The footage showed him being handcuffed by officers as he lay dying. It prompted political outrage and led Katie to describe the family’s experience as having two distinct moments of devastation.
“In the last year, our world has changed twice,” she said. “The first time was the night that we were told that Henry had died. And the second time was when we watched that video.”
Digwa, 23, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on June 1, with a minimum term of 21 years. He had falsely claimed that Mr Nowak had racially abused him.
Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, was sentenced to three years in prison for assisting an offender after removing the knife from the murder scene.
Evidence released after the sentencings included footage recorded on Digwa’s phone, in which he could be heard speaking to his mother in Punjabi and asking her to take away the weapon. A transcript released by prosecutors recorded him saying: “Take this.”
At Southampton Crown Court, Judge William Mousley said Kaur knew or believed that her son had stabbed and injured Mr Nowak when he told her to remove the weapon.
The judge said she took the dagger home and placed it with a collection of ceremonial and other weapons in her son’s bedroom. He said her actions helped conceal its use and supported Digwa’s claim that he had done nothing wrong and was the victim.
Judge Mousley also said Kaur’s actions added to “the degradation of Henry being arrested when he was dying”.
Independent review into the murder
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced an independent review into Mr Nowak’s murder, to be led by former lord chancellor Alex Chalk.
The review will examine whether there were “any missed opportunities to intervene”, after questions were raised about whether agencies and organisations had failed to act on complaints about Digwa’s violent and erratic behaviour.
Mr Chalk said the review would “follow the evidence without fear or favour” and would also consider how public authorities treated the Nowak family during their grief.
Dear Henry: Our Fight For Justice will be broadcast on ITV and ITVX on Thursday November 5 at 9pm.
