Southampton protests erupt after conviction in Henry Nowak murder case

Henry Nowak’s murder conviction became the centre of a night of anger in Southampton, where crowds turned out not only to mark the killing of an 18-year-old student but to vent fury over how police handled the case from the start. By the time the unrest reached Portswood, officers were facing missiles, riot vans and a police helicopter as tensions around grief, race and public order spilled into the streets.

Vickrum Digwa, 23, was convicted of murdering Henry after a jury heard he stabbed the University of Southampton student five times in Portswood on 3 December 2025. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said Henry was on his way home from a night out with friends when he was attacked. Police said he suffered significant internal bleeding from a chest wound and was pronounced dead at the scene. Body-worn footage later showed Henry repeatedly saying he had been stabbed and could not breathe, while Digwa falsely claimed to officers that he had been the victim of a racist assault. Henry was handcuffed as he lay dying. Digwa was also convicted of possession of a bladed article in a public place.

The sentence did not settle the case’s wider fallout. On 2 June 2026, hundreds gathered outside Southampton Central Police Station, where Tommy Robinson and Laurence Fox addressed the crowd before the demonstration moved toward the Portswood area near Belmont Road, close to the place where Nowak was stabbed. As the crowd advanced, clashes broke out with riot police. Officers were pelted with bricks, bottles, cans, flares, chairs and wheelie bins, and some were forced back from the line they had been holding.

The family of Henry Nowak had urged people not to let his death be turned into more division, hatred or tension. Their warning framed the violence that followed: a murder case that had become a grievance about trust, authority and the original police response. That unease was then dragged further into the political arena as Shabana Mahmood condemned the disorder as “completely unacceptable” and said there was no justification for hijacking the tragedy to stir up violence and disorder.

Mahmood made an oral statement to the House of Commons on 2 June, while Keir Starmer also called for calm and said police had serious questions to answer. The case has now become a flashpoint far beyond Southampton, exposing how quickly a murder trial can ignite wider anger when families, officers and ministers are all seen as falling short of public confidence.