LATEST: Henry Nowak murder sparks outrage
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
A student, Henry Nowak, who had been stabbed repeatedly told police “I can’t breathe” as they handcuffed him minutes before he died, newly-released bodycam footage has revealed. His attacker, Vickrum Digwa, falsely alleged that Nowak had racially abused him and knocked his turban off, prompting police to handcuff the teenager.
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Read more: Police officers face death threats over Henry Nowak murder case
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Manvine. As the fallout from the murder of Henry Novak has grown, we thought we should bring you the latest. |
| 0:22.8 | So in this extra afternoon episode of the story, we're handing over to our Times radio colleague, John Pinaar. |
| 0:37.3 | Hello, I'm John Pinar with Drive on Times Radio. Thanks for joining me. The murder of Henry |
| 0:43.1 | Novak was appalling. The police response, abysmal, crass. And the fallout has ignited a wave of |
| 0:49.7 | political soul-searching, point-scoring and recrimination. Police wrongly treated Novak as a racist offender when they arrived at the scene of the attack, |
| 0:59.3 | cuffing his hands while he lay dying on the ground of multiple knife wounds inflicted by his attacker Vikram Digwa, a Sikh. |
| 1:07.3 | Now, Digua has now been jail for a minimum of 21 years, |
| 1:25.7 | and the case ranks like the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993, which highlighted violent racism, and that of the 10-year-old gang violence victim Damelo-Latero in 2000 as a case which defines the social challenges of our time. |
| 1:29.9 | Now, the question has become, has fear of being judged racist grown so strong it could blind police officers at a crime scene to the truth of who's the |
| 1:35.6 | victim and who's the violent offender, so blind that an innocent 18-year-old died handcuffed |
| 1:41.2 | on the ground while his killer lied about being racially abused to escape the |
| 1:45.6 | consequences. So, earlier on, speaking in the House of Commons, the Home Secretary, |
| 1:50.1 | Shabana Mahmood, condemned the murder of this 18-year-old Henry Novak as an evil act. And she told |
| 1:56.4 | MPs the murder shouldn't be allowed to drive communities apart. Yesterday, the Novak family ended their statement with a powerful call to us all. |
| 2:04.7 | I quote, we do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. |
| 2:12.0 | They quoted the words of the prosecuting lawyer. |
| 2:15.1 | And I quote again, Mr. Speaker, this is not a case about Sikhism. |
| 2:18.6 | This is not a case about racism. |
| 2:20.6 | This is a case about murder. |
| 2:23.4 | I echo those words. |
| 2:25.5 | We cannot allow this murder to turn communities against one another. |
| 2:29.8 | We must condemn those who seek personal political profit from tragedy. |
... |
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