As 18-year-old Henry Nowak lay dying on a Southampton driveway, a policeman told him: "I don't think you have mate," when he said he had been stabbed. Nowak, a first-year accountancy and finance student at the University of Southampton, had been stabbed five times with a ceremonial Sikh knife by Vickrum Digwa, 23, after a brief altercation on the way home from a pub. Digwa then filmed Nowak, told him he was not injured, and called police to falsely claim he had been assaulted. Officers arrived and handcuffed the wounded student as he gasped he could not breathe.
Digwa was convicted of murder and on Monday jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years. The release of police bodycam footage showing Nowak handcuffed and dying sparked fury. Protests erupted in Southampton on Tuesday evening, with hundreds marching from the central police station to the neighbourhood where Digwa lived and Nowak died. Car windows were smashed, bricks strewn across roads. Eleven officers and a police dog were injured, according to Hampshire and Isle of Wight chief constable Alexis Boon.
“Six more men charged after protests over murder of Henry Nowak, bringing total to 11.”
Six more men have now been charged with violent disorder, bringing the total charged to 11. Kevin Reeves, 31, of Portswood Road, Southampton; Andrew Riddett, 38, of Seacombe Green, Southampton; Harry Varney, 34, of Briarswood, Southampton; Taylor Grundy, 22, of Pavilion Way, Gosport; and Dillon Crawford, 29, of Wilton Avenue, Southampton, were each charged with violent disorder. Andrew Summerhayes, 38, of Banning Street, Romsey, was charged with violent disorder and two counts of possessing an offensive weapon in a public place. All six were remanded in custody and due to appear at Southampton Magistrates' Court on Saturday.
Four men have already pleaded guilty to violent disorder, one for also possessing a dog lead with a metal carabiner as an offensive weapon. One man denied assaulting a police officer. The far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, addressed crowds outside the police station during a protest billed as Justice for Henry Nowak. Protesters chanted "Racist police, off our streets" and "Shame on you", waving Union flags and signs reading "Henry's blood is on your hands". Nowak's father, Mark Nowak, condemned the "inhumane and degrading" treatment of his son.
Simon Dorrington, a local man who travelled from Eastleigh to lay flowers at the spot where Nowak died, said: "I hate them. A couple of officers walked by and I just called them racist." He said he felt the police were "anti-white". The Labour leader of Southampton city council, Sarah Bogle, suggested some people had arrived from outside the city for the demonstration. The six men are to appear in court on Saturday morning.