Henry Nowak was failed in the last moments of his life – and then again by Britain’s disgraceful political class |
Nine times. As Henry Nowak lay dying in handcuffs, he told police officers that he could not breathe nine times.
To recount his final moments: last December, Nowak, who was walking home alone after a night out with university friends in Southampton, encountered Vickrum Digwa. As the judge said in his sentencing, only Nowak and Digwa know exactly what happened in their interaction. But what is clear is that Digwa stabbed Nowak repeatedly and lied to the police when they arrived on the scene: he claimed that Nowak had racially abused him. The police pulled Nowak across the gravel and forced his hands behind his back. As he pleaded with officers, telling him that he had been stabbed, one officer dismissed him, saying: “I don’t think you have, mate.” Another simply says “he hasn’t been stabbed”. Just the sound from the bodycam footage is enough to make your blood run cold.
On the steps outside Southampton crown court, his father, Mark Nowak, described his son as “one of the kindest, friendliest and most inclusive people you could ever hope to meet”. He said that “instead of being treated as a dying victim, [the] police formally arrested Henry for assault and read him his rights. That was the last thing he heard. Henry did not die with dignity. He did not die with the care he deserved. He lost consciousness before anyone believed him.” His son was only 18. He had only just started university. And he was only walking home.
The Nowak family are right to describe their son’s treatment by the police as “inhumane and degrading”. That still would have been the case even if Nowak had done something wrong. Even if Nowak had racially, verbally or physically assaulted Digwa, the police’s encounter with him should have prioritised protecting his life, as mandated by the College of Policing guidance under the European convention on human rights. Nowak’s innocence........