Simon Dorrington travelled from his home in Eastleigh to the spot where Henry Nowak died, a bouquet of flowers in hand. With a prosthetic leg, he had been unable to join the protest that erupted days earlier. As he stood by his mobility scooter, tears hovered in his eyes. “I hate them,” he said of the police. “A couple of officers walked by and I just called them racist.”
Three more people have now been charged with violent disorder after the protests in Southampton, bringing the total to 14. Darren Medhurst, 36, of Carnation Road; Jordan Hambleton, 19, of Rollesbrook Gardens; and Callum Darch, 27, of St Blaize Road, Romsey, will appear at Southampton Magistrates’ Court on Monday, Hampshire Police said.
“Three more charged as Henry Nowak protest arrests reach 14; a grieving man says he now hates police.”
The unrest followed the sentencing of Vickrum Digwa, 23, to life imprisonment with a minimum of 21 years for murdering 18-year-old Nowak in December. The case ignited fury after police body-worn video showed Nowak being handcuffed moments before he became unconscious and died. Digwa had used the “racism trump card”, claiming he was the victim of a racial attack, while Nowak – stabbed repeatedly with a ceremonial Sikh knife – pleaded that he could not breathe as officers ignored his dying words. “I don’t think you have mate,” one policeman replied.
Hampshire Police had planned to issue a statement challenging what it called “mis- and disinformation” circulating online, but the Crown Prosecution Service warned it could jeopardise the trial. A CPS spokesperson said: “The CPS highlighted to the police that protecting the integrity of the ongoing trial was essential.” The final decision on releasing the statement remained a police operational decision.
Dorrington, who now believes the police are “anti-white”, described feeling sick when he first saw the footage. His anger has been years in the making. Fifteen years ago he jumped from a railway bridge, smashing his leg; unable to convince the NHS to amputate, he took an electric saw to his own ankle last year. Now, the case has crystallised a deep resentment. “You let people come in with dinghies but there’s places we can’t go,” he said. “They get gas, electric, but we’re struggling to pay.”
On Sunday, members of White Vanguard, a neo-Nazi cell that has sought to capitalise on anti-asylum protests, laid flowers outside Portswood police station, close to where Nowak died.