Henry Nowak ‘would have hated’ riots after his murder, says family

Parents of teenager stabbed in Southampton last year hit out at political ‘game’ played with son’s murder

Henry Nowak’s family said he “would have hated” the riots that followed his death as they accused some politicians of playing a “game” with their son’s murder.

Nowak, who was fatally stabbed by Vickrum Digwa last year, was handcuffed by police as he lay dying when his attacker falsely accused him of racial abuse.

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, subsequently delivered an emergency address calling for the public to respond with “pure cold rage” and demanding an end to what he described as “two-tier policing”.

Protesters – including the leaders of Ukip and Britain First, the Portsmouth branch of the National Rebirth party and others called to attend on social media – demonstrated in Southampton in the weeks after Nowak’s death.

Speaking in an interview for an ITV Tonight documentary, Dear Henry: Our Fight for Justice, the family said they had “worked hard” to keep politics out of Nowak’s story.

Nowak’s mother, Lucy Ross, said she thought some people had tried to use her son’s death to advance wider political arguments.

“I suppose that’s the game they play, and I can’t do anything about that. But when they think it all links together – no, it doesn’t,” she said.

“Olivia’s lost her brother, and I’ve lost my son. I’m not interested in your political game.

“I want to know why Henry was on the floor, and he got treated the way he did, but that family got treated [in] a different way. What is that?”

Mark Nowak told ITV that his son “was not a divisive person” and the political response to his murder “didn’t sit with Henry’s values or our values”.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) confirmed that its investigation into potential failures in the police response to Nowak’s stabbing is expected to wrap up early next year.

A letter sent to the family by the watchdog in April said that, after “careful consideration of the available evidence”, no officers “would be subject to conduct or criminal investigation”.

It read: “This was because there were no concerns identified in relation to officer actions and decisions that would be so serious as to justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings, should they be proven or admitted.”

The letter added that the decision not to investigate attending officers would be “kept under review throughout the life cycle of the case”.

The IOPC announced in July that two officers were under investigation for potential gross misconduct.

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has also commissioned an independent review of the case, including the IOPC’s involvement, led by the former lord chancellor Alex Chalk, to examine whether there were “any missed opportunities to intervene”.

Speaking to ITV, she said she had been “very moved by the dignity of the family in how they’ve handled this awful situation which none of us can ever imagine being in, and I’m very clear that they deserve answers and I have committed to them that it’s my job to make sure that they get the answers”.