Family of murdered student Henry Nowak say police misled and manipulated them

The family of the murdered teenager Henry Nowak, who was arrested as he pleaded for medical help after being stabbed, have said they were failed by the authorities and fear they were manipulated in their darkest hour.

His parents described how police wrongly told them Nowak, 18, had been the aggressor, and that officers had immediately administered first aid. They said the police watchdog had initially said there was no evidence of misconduct by officers.

“The story was evolving every time we had an interaction,” Henry’s father, Mark Nowak, told ITV News. “What started off as: ‘When the police arrived, we administered first aid,’ moved through a stage where: ‘When the police arrived, they detained everyone’ … to: ‘We actually only detained Henry,’ to then: ‘We handcuffed Henry,’ and then: ‘We placed Henry under arrest.’

“That evolution of what actually happened that night really shocked us, and we felt we were being hoodwinked. We felt we were being not told the truth.”

Nowak’s stepmother, Katie Nowak, said: “I do feel that we have been failed multiple times. I fear that we may have been manipulated in our darkest hours. And I fear that some decisions were made to try and protect the police and their reputation rather than help us as a family.”

The student was murdered by Vickrum Digwa, who stabbed him as he walked home from a night out in Southampton in December 2025. Nowak was handcuffed by police officers while bleeding to death after Digwa, who was eventually jailed for life, had falsely accused him of racial abuse.

In police bodyworn camera footage that prompted a public outcry, Nowak was heard repeatedly saying: “I’ve been stabbed,” to which an officer replied: “Don’t think you have, mate.”

Read the full article at The Guardian.