Henry Nowak was 18, and at the end of his first term at Southampton University, when he was murdered. Around 11:30 p.m. on 3 December last year, Henry was walking back from a night out with his university football team. He hadn’t drunk heavily – during the trial we heard that he was below the drink driving limit. On the way home Henry encountered Vickrum Digwa, the 23-year-old Sikh man who would murder him.
Given the seriousness with which our police take racism, of course their response to this was to handcuff Henry
Digwa was carrying two blades, an eight-inch ‘shastar’ openly displayed, and a smaller ‘kirpan’ around his neck and under clothing. During the trial we heard that Digwa had ‘been training with weapons since the age of 12’ and used ‘loving terms’ when speaking about the murder weapon. Henry was stabbed five times by Digwa, including twice on the back of his legs, once in the face and a blow to the chest which killed him.
This wasn’t the end of Vickrum Digwa’s evil that day. Shortly after the attack, Digwa’s father, brother and mother arrived at the scene. He gave the murder weapon to his mother Kiran Kaur and she took it away to the family home. Kaur has been found guilty of assisting an offender by removing the weapon from the scene. Digwa went further in his efforts to evade justice. He lied during the 999 call. When the police arrived he lied to them, claiming to have been the victim of a racist attack and saying that he had not stabbed Henry.
Given the seriousness with which our police take racism, of course their response to this was to handcuff Henry (who neighbours overhead saying that he was ‘dying’). And so Henry Nowak lost consciousness and died, while his killer lied about him to the police. Robert France, temporary deputy chief constable for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight has said he is ‘sorry’ that Henry was ‘handcuffed and arrested as he lost consciousness’, and told the BBC that the force has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). He added that the court pathologist said Henry could not have been saved by earlier medical intervention.
Much attention has been on the issue of Sikhs carrying knives. It is bizarre and stupid that we allow one particular ethno-religious group to carry lethal weapons which are illegal for any other resident or citizen of the country, especially when British women aren’t even allowed to carry pepper spray for self-defence. This exemption must now end.
But in many ways the behaviour of the police in this situation is far worse. There are plenty of dangerous, violent thugs in the country. Some have families who will try to conceal their crimes. But the police are supposed to treat us all equally under the law. Or rather, they were, until the wicked, lethal doctrine of anti-racism captured them.
The police chose to ignore the evidence in front of them in order to believe the Sikh family shouting about ‘racism’. The police ignored the appeals of the 18-year-old white boy bleeding out in front of them. Decades of training on ‘anti-racism’, fear of being labelled ‘racist’, fear of not listening to minority groups. All of these no doubt played a part. This pernicious doctrine of anti-racism has captured the police since the Macpherson report labelled them ‘institutionally racist’. Whatever they were in the 1990s, it seems that our police are now institutionally anti-white.
In order to get to the truth of the matter the police should release all of their body cam footage from the incident as a matter of urgency. The trial is concluded, so there can be no concerns around contempt of court. We all need to hear and see exactly what these officers said and did, so the truth of ‘anti-racism’ can be revealed.
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