Police bodycam footage sparks outrage after Henry Nowak stabbing death

The footage at the center of the uproar showed 18-year-old Henry Nowak, a first-year university student, handcuffed as he lay dying after being stabbed in Southampton in December 2025. As officers spoke to him, Nowak repeatedly said he had been stabbed and could not breathe, while Vickrum Digwa, 23, had falsely claimed that Nowak racially abused and assaulted him.

The killing returned to the front of British politics after Digwa was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years on June 1, 2026. The next day, the Home Secretary told Parliament that Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, had already been convicted of assisting an offender and was due to be sentenced on July 17, 2026. She also said the Crown Prosecution Service had authorised further charges against other members of Digwa’s family.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said its investigation into the officers’ contact with Nowak began the same day Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary made a mandatory referral. The review is examining the use of handcuffs and the first aid provided in the moments before Nowak died, adding a second layer of scrutiny to a case already defined by a deadly assault and a disputed claim of racial abuse.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he felt sick watching the footage and said there were serious questions to answer. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood called the video disturbing and said the police must be held to account through the IOPC process. The language from the top of government underscored how quickly a local criminal case in Southampton had become a national argument about police conduct, public confidence and who gets believed in moments of crisis.

The politics around the case widened fast. Nigel Farage said Britain was facing “two-tier policing,” a phrase Starmer accused him of using to stoke racial tensions. Conservative MP Robert Jenrick compared the case to George Floyd and accused Hampshire Police of “two-tier policing” as well. Protests in Southampton grew to more than 1,000 people, then escalated into clashes in which 11 police officers were injured, with some protesters shouting “I can’t breathe.” The dispute even crossed the Atlantic, drawing comments from JD Vance and U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., while the British government pushed back against what it described as U.S. interference in domestic politics.