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Child Item

Henry Nowak - I can’t breathe

StrawbsM

It’s been a long time since I have posted on boards and even longer since I started a thread.

Henry Nowak died on 3rd December 2025 after being stabbed multiple times by Vickrum Digwa. When the police arrived on the scene they found a man collapsed on a driveway between a parked car and the house. The murderer told the police that he had been racially attacked by Henry. The police subsequently dragged dying Henry by his legs from between the car and the house.

During this time Henry is struggling to breathe and to talk but he repeats many times he has been stabbed. He mumbles he needs an ambulance and he desperately tells the police officers he cannot breathe. A police officer tells him he hasn’t been stabbed and they handcuff him and tell him he has been arrested. Police have now released their bodycam footage

Yesterday after Digwa was sentenced to life for the murder of Henry Nowak, Henry’s father in a statement outside the court said that Henry did not die with dignity and did not die with the care he deserved. I am making this post to remember Henry who by all accounts was a wonderful young man whose bright future was taken away from him. May he rest in peace.

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Sweetemotion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124529927#Comment_124529927

They dragged him, cuffed him and read his rights. All while he said he was stabbed and couldn't breathe.

" I don't think you have have mate"

Emblematic

This is not a reflection of anyone here, but I've seen it argued elsewhere (not on this thread), the idea that Nowak would probably have died anyway as a sort of defence of police behaviour. A mitigating factor. I don't understand this argument. The police did not believe Nowak had any sort of injury, and so if he had been less injured, they would have acted exactly the same. A lesser injury, and police inaction could well have been a factor in his death. The seriousness of his injuries should not stand to benefit the police in this particular case.

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530164#Comment_124530164

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530171#Comment_124530171

Indeed. Not excusing them at all .

Ardillaun

Talk about damaging somebody’s reputation, actually putting them in danger, with a false accusation…how does X get away with this?

https://news.sky.com/story/ex-police-officer-falsely-identified-by-grok-in-henry-nowak-arrest-is-forced-to-flee-13550667

aero2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124529012#Comment_124529012

Agreed. I expressed no position on the validity of the pathologist's conclusion. When I made my OP, I was just stating some facts which hadn't been mentioned in the thread: the judge said what he said, and presumably his quote from the pathologist's report was accurate, so that's two facts. Whether or not the pathologist's opinion is supported by the other available facts is open to debate - as mentioned you have provided compelling evidence that it is not. The inquest will hopefully examine this - coroners have a lot of discretion when deciding on scope, and inquests are only allowed make findings of fact (on the balance of probabilities rather than beyond reasonable doubt) and are prohibited from blame or exoneration.

I don't have any particular insight into forensic pathology, but I expect there are rules and norms around reports that will likely end up before the courts. On reflection it's surprising that the pathologist would comment at all on survivability - the wound and blood loss were unambiguous, survivability might be arguable. It's also arguable that the judge didn't need to mention this topic at all in his remarks - it's neither here nor there when deciding on the sentence. Maybe there was some intent to exonerate the cops. As Irish people who lived through the seventies it's not hard to think of examples of the British justice system getting up to shenanigans, whether orchestrated or just various organisations protecting their interests which just happened to be aligned.

To reiterate, the conduct of the cops was reckless and unprofessional, but I actually have a small bit of sympathy for the individuals involved who now have to deal with the fallout. Their income and promotion prospects depend on following orders from above, and as has been made clear earlier in the thread this means treating different races differently, which is inherently racist.

Just on your comments about Henry only deteriorating after his position was changed - hopefully someone with more medical expertise will chime in but presumably in the case of blood loss it's possible to be stable and then deteriorate rapidly once a threshold is reached. IIRC the pathologist removed two pints of blood from his chest cavity, there must have been more on his clothes.

Am I right in saying there was an hour between the stabbing and the 999 call?

One other opinion: I think the exemption for ceremonial knives is actually discrimination on the grounds of religion against non-Sikhs but that's just the way my mind works.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530423#Comment_124530423

I haven't seen a detailed timeline of the whole thing, but presumably the hour's delay would have included the time the paramedics spent working on him before his death was declared, so I think they were called before that, but I've no idea when. I saw 67 minutes between (something: stabbing? call being logged on the system??) and death being declared. It's all rather unclear, even with the partial timelines that I've seen.

At 23:07, Nowak can be seen [on CCTV] making his way back towards his university accommodation. (…)
The judge explained that footage filmed by Digwa showed Nowak "desperately trying to get away" by scaling a
fence and getting onto a communal bin before landing on a car in front of the next-door property. Digwa "continued to make films of Henry suffering, ignoring much of his desperation at having been stabbed", the judge added.
At approximately 23:30 - less than half an hour after Nowak was seen on CCTV heading home - the killer's brother, Gurpreet Digwa, called 999. He told the operator that Vickrum had been "attacked by someone racially" and gave the location.
"He's physically attacked my brother. We're Sikhs, we wear turbans and he's just attacked my brother," Gurpreet can be heard saying. He told the call handler, when asked, that no weapons had been involved but that Nowak needed medical attention. The call lasted just under 12 minutes. The handler tells Gurpreet that police officers will be at the scene "very shortly" and that an ambulance would also be called.
Seven minutes after the call was made, police arrived at the scence at 23:37.
Bodycam footage shows four people on a driveway while Nowak is on the floor. The footage shows Digwa lying to police by telling them he had been racially abused by Nowak.
One minute and 11 seconds into the footage, Nowak is heard saying he has been stabbed. He said "I can't breathe" seven times. At 23:38, Nowak is handcuffed. An officer is heard saying Nowak is under arrest and read him his rights.
One minute later, an ambulance is called and officers administer CPR.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjepqy29jdpo

There's a contradiction there though

The handler tells Gurpreet that police officers will be at the scene "very shortly" and that an ambulance would also be called. (…)
One minute later, [23:39, ie after he collapses] an ambulance is called and officers administer CPR.

So was an ambulance called at the same time as the police came out, or maybe it was more of a notification that one might be needed when they saw what was going on?

Between the filming and the long phone call, that's at least 17 minutes when we know that no help was called at all. And we don't know how long there was between the stabbing and Digwa's family arriving (did they give his mother a few minutes to get back home and hide the knife safely first? Sounds like they would have wanted to, doesn't it?) and then the call being made.

However despite believing that they were just going to cuff a drunk man who had shouted rude remarks and knocked another adult man's turban off, the police came 7 minutes after that not-terribly-urgent call.

It's like a caricature of the most exaggerated possible descriptions of "woke policing", where all those various RW figures have been saying for ages now that the police will rush to the scene of a racist remark but not to an actual stabbing…

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530198#Comment_124530198

Easy. Just have to say "I don't think you have, mate."

I'm sceptical. They're not neutral participants in this and they have form for trying to direct the narrative. If it's untrue, she can sue Elon Musk, she'll get a fortune.

(Has anybody seen this fake misidentification? I haven't. Or is it another attempt by Hampshire police to control the narrative by making themselves out to be the victims here? Like the way they were originally intending to describe the incident as "racially-motivated", the way the Digwa's wanted them to, and Nowak's father had to fight them to prevent that narrative being put out there.)

Wompa1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124529871#Comment_124529871

That is your interpretation. Mine is that those raped by people close to them such as uncles, aunts, neighbours etc. are less inclined to report. Non-Irish people won't have as wide of a circle as Irish people, more likely that their extended family don't live in Ireland and their families are not as dug into the community. A non-Irish person committing rape may be more likely to be reported as a result. A victim can have less fear of coming forward if them coming forward doesn't start a rift in the family or town.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530758#Comment_124530758

That's why I made a distinction between stranger rape and DV. The statistics from countries like Denmark which systematically collate ethnicity and/or nationality find that, proportionally to their numbers in the country, stranger rapes are FAR more likely to be committed by foreign men than by ethnic Danes, Swedes etc, and that there are significant differences among different nationalities.

And guess what? Men from countries where women are routinely considered to be inferior to men are more likely to be violent and/or to assault women when they come to Europe.

That's not "my interpretation", it's a fact. That there are fewer of them in the population doesn't make it acceptable.

Nermal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124527160#Comment_124527160

When the remigration begins her descendents will be born outside the UK, and she will get her wish.

Varik

Police tried to intervene in Henry Nowak murder trial

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/henry-nowak-murder-trial-police-l8x990pkb

Archive of above

https://archive.is/5mLez#selection-1837.50-1837.132

The police force at the centre of the Henry Nowak scandal tried to intervene during his murderer’s trial in a highly unusual move, The Sunday Times can reveal.
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary sought to release a public statement to address what it described as “disinformation” circulating online while court proceedings were at a critical point against Vickrum Digwa.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advised the force that such a step could risk jeopardising the “integrity” of the case.

Goes into some of the statements they did make painting Nowak as the aggressor.

The boy who cried "disinformation".

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124528376#Comment_124528376

Not defending Farage, but I think the misinformation being spread here is not acceptable. He did not say "white rage" and I find it concerning that several people gave this a like, so presumably believed it.

It's ironic to see complaints about people spreading misinformation when nobody picked up on this. But perhaps it's ok to spread lies about Farage because we don't approve of him, right?

RoyalCelt

There's a serious lack on politicians worldwide taking the knee for Henry. The difference in reactions has been stark.

RoyalCelt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124518658#Comment_124518658

Oh he knew full well playing the race card would get himself undeserved leeway.

OscarMIlde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530901#Comment_124530901

That's horrific. Also from the same article;

The Sunday Times can also reveal that the force wanted to portray Nowak as the aggressor in an official statement three days after his death, but changed their wording after outrage from his grieving family.
Nowak died in the early hours of December 4 after being stabbed multiple times by Digwa, who is Sikh and had falsely claimed to police that he had been racially abused.

An initial police statement later that morning said: “It was reported two men had been assaulted by an unknown man.”The Nowak family, raw with grief, became concerned that a false narrative was being pushed about their son. It is understood that police told the family the next update they planned to publish, which would include the Nowaks’ tribute, would again imply that he was the initial aggressor.Officers dropped that section of the statement, which only referred to an “altercation” when published.

How horrible, not only to know that your son was brutally murdered but that even after his death, when it was abundantly clear to the police that the racism allegations were false, the police were smearing him in an attempt to cover up their failings.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530918#Comment_124530918

Never mind worldwide - Starmer "took the knee" for an American convicted criminal who was under the influence of methamphetamines and fentanyl, but has been loathe to say anything, much less make such a gesture, for a lad born and brought up in England who wasn't even over the drink driving limit. It's crazy.

RoyalCelt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530946#Comment_124530946

Just shows the world we now live in.

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530946#Comment_124530946

Starmer is a POS

almostover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530911#Comment_124530911

Yes, sorry it was the BBC that misquoted Farage. The situation in the UK currently is a mess, too much rage baiting over race.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124531111#Comment_124531111

If that's the case, that's genuinely shocking. Do you have a link to that??

ETA: found it:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c332g6gk0jlo

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124531141#Comment_124531141

Mistake my hole. Lies followed up with lies.

volchitsa

https://metro.co.uk/2026/06/07/iceland-boss-says-two-tier-policing-happened-one-enfield-stores-28682754/

Still. Probably just another uneducated far right idiot as the other poster said. I mean, anyone can run a chain of supermarkets and no doubt have nothing better to do than to fall for conspiracy theories that the much wiser posters of these boards can see straight through.

El Gato De Negocios

Rumours circulating that ol Vik got the tried and tested prison welcome of boiling water mixed with sugar in the face at some point over the last 24 hours.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124531747#Comment_124531747

And that is absolutely disgusting, and so typical of violent men to seize a chance to inflict harm on someone else while pretending to be doing it because they're such good people "really".

People should not be fooled by that. They do it because they've found someone weaker than them and someone they can feel morally superior to as they torture him. It's not surprising that crims act like that - but what is surprising (to me anyway) is the number of noncriminals who consider themselves to be decent people who will cheer them on.

El Gato De Negocios

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124531783#Comment_124531783

He murdered someone and then had the audacity to lie and blame the victim by saying he had been racially attacked.

His actions ultimately led to his victims death, his subsequent actions may have prevented the young man from receiving life saving medical intervention.

I hope every day he has for the remainder of his life is utterly miserable.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124531791#Comment_124531791

I'm not saying I hope he gets three star prison treatment with conjugal rights etc - I'm all for prison being a fairly miserable experience for someone like that. I'm making a point about male violence.

Those prisoners who attacked him may have done - or be capable of doing - things that are just as bad or worse, and I hate the idea that they know that people outside prison are cheering them on. It's like the man who murdered the Lost Prophets singer - the killer was a nasty piece of work himself, but it seems like by being violent - something they already enjoy anyway - they feel they've redeemed themselves, but only because here's someone who's even more hated than them, and so can be safely harmed. It's a win-win situation for men like that. And nothing like redemption.

And I don't think we should fall for it.

Grab All Association

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124531783#Comment_124531783

When Tommy Robinson was sent to prison, we had people on the left here in Ireland wishing he was attacked in the exact same way or killed.

And you're wrong. They do it for the notoriety and inmate hierarchy.

Ardillaun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124530664#Comment_124530664

I’m relying on what is being reported by several outlets.

Reuters has verified evidence that Parsons was out of the country on that date and Hill had left the police force the previous year.

Hill also said she left Hampshire Constabulary in April 2024, which is corroborated by her past LinkedIn posts, that referenced her departure. Her later employer, a private security firm called Polaris Gatekeeper, said to Reuters in an ‌email that ⁠Hill worked for the company from May 2024, “immediately following her police service”, and had since continued working in the private security industry.

https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/pair-misidentified-police-officers-scene-nowak-death-2026-06-05/

Have Hampshire Police said these people were not involved yet? If that is the case, one would expect an employer or former employer to do that much.

El Gato De Negocios

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124531814#Comment_124531814

Ian Watkins got away lightly tbh. All murder is of course objectively wrong but some crimes, the Watkins case being a prime example, the likes of Peter Scully and similar, are so egregious, so offensive to anyone's sensibilities, that they are imo deserving of whatever prison justice they receive. 🤷‍♂️

AugustRain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124528700#Comment_124528700

sure I read it. Your objective from your first post was to engineer the discussion away from the wickedness of the perpetrator, the scandal of the on scene police response and the blatant racism on show for everyone to see, and shift all the emphasis on to the (as you see it) “far right” political response. You spare neither sympathy nor empathy for the deceased and his family. But that’s the way with you people.