Two men have been jailed for violent disorder after a protest over the murder of Henry Nowak descended into chaos, leaving 12 police officers and a police dog injured.
Connor Bishop, 24, was sentenced to two years and eight months, and Leon O'Leary, 41, to three years and one month at Southampton Crown Court on Tuesday. Both had pleaded guilty to violent disorder at an earlier hearing.
“Two men jailed for violent disorder at protest over Henry Nowak murder, with 12 police officers injured.”
The violence erupted on 2 June in the Portswood area of Southampton, after police released bodycam footage showing the 18-year-old student handcuffed and dying on the pavement. Nowak had been stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, 23, who was later jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years. Digwa, who carried the blade on grounds of his Sikh faith, lied to police, falsely claiming he was the victim of a racist attack, leading officers to arrest Nowak instead of his killer.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has since launched an investigation into the force's response.
Footage played in court showed O'Leary "walking casually" in the crowd, picking up a smoke grenade from the ground and throwing it towards police. When officers came to arrest him at his home in the early hours of 7 June, he adopted a "fighting stance" at the top of the stairs and threatened them, forcing them to use pava spray to subdue him. In his bedroom, they found a samurai sword, which O'Leary said he had owned for 20 years as decoration and was unaware the law on ownership had changed.
Bishop, from Southampton, was seen on camera wearing a black jumper with "boys get sad too" on the back, carrying a yellow traffic cone which he threw at officers. Prosecutor Siobhan Linsley told the court he was seen "pursuing officers for some time with it" and after throwing it, he picked it up again. He also admitted throwing a box of screws and punching a wall, though those acts were not captured on footage. In a police interview, he said he was brought up Christian and "threw items to fit into the crowd".
A total of 21 people have been charged in connection with the disorder.
The case has stirred deep anger in the community. Simon Dorrington, who travelled from Eastleigh to the spot where Nowak died, said the bodycam footage made him feel sick. Standing with a prosthetic leg after a suicide attempt years earlier, he told a reporter: "I hate them. A couple of officers walked by and I just called them racist." He said he now believes the police are "anti-white". Dorrington had come to pay respects and to protest against what he sees as national decline.
Days before the riot, members of White Vanguard, a neo-Nazi cell, laid flowers outside Portswood police station, close to the murder scene.