The Killing of Henry Nowak

“I can’t breathe.”
The last words of George Floyd.

“I can’t breathe.”
The last words of Henry Nowak.

Henry Nowak was an 18-year-old Englishman, a student of Polish descent, and was studying for a degree in Accounting and Finance at Southampton University, England. On the evening of December 3, 2025, he had gone into town to meet with fellow members of his university football team. He drank less than the legal limit in the UK to drive a car (as an autopsy showed), and was walking home when he encountered 23-year-old Vikrum Digwa, a Sikh man. An altercation ensued, in which Henry was stabbed five times by Digwa (the original report said four). The weapon used was a 21cm (just over eight inches) knife. We will return to the murder weapon, as it is one of many instances of misreporting in this case. And I don’t just mean the type of misreporting where you make mistakes about the facts. I also mean the type where you get to decide what is fact, and what is mistake.

Two phone calls were made to the police. A neighbor heard the altercation, and called the police to report that “someone’s been stabbed.” Digwa’s brother, Gupreet, also called the police. Here are the first two lines of the call, and the transcribed lines are spoken by the brother:

“Hello. Police, emergency. We just been attacked by someone racially”.

(Inaudible).

“Sorry. We just got attacked racially by some white person”.

So, there were two 999 calls (the equivalent of 911 in the US). However, when the police arrived, they had clearly either not been told about, or had been told to ignore, the initial neighbor’s call. It simply didn’t happen. They had not responded to it, but they most certainly had responded to the call from Digwa’s brother due to his mention of racism. The ambulance service, on the other hand, did not attend the scene, and for a simple reason. Had the brother said, “Emergency! Someone’s been stabbed!”, then an ambulance would have attended along with the police, just as the police always attend when an ambulance is called in the UK. But the brother neglected to mention a young man who was, as things would transpire, about to drown in his own blood due to a large knife wound inflicted by Digwa. There is no need to say “allegedly,” as he was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court to 21 years in jail, minimum. “Minimum” is one of those soap-bubble political phrases, a fake performative, like “unacceptable,” and “going forward.” He could be out aged 44, fit and healthy from the prison gym, and all ready to go. Now, back to the weapon, which will need a brief detour into Sikhism.

In the 2021 British census, Sikhs in Britain made up 0.9% of the population of England and Wales. If that percentage has grown, it will have been because of procreation. The dinghies full of illegal immigrants to the UK that arrive daily on the shores of Kent, not too far around the coast from Southampton, do not contain any undocumented Sikhs. All seems well, and Sikhism seems to be more of a religion of peace than others often incorrectly labelled as such. Except for one question. If the Sikhs are so peaceful, why are they allowed to carry knives in public, unlike anyone else in the country bar the King’s Household Cavalry and the military? Sikhs are allowed to carry knives in the UK, and it is not the first political concession that has been made to the Sikh community. Since the 1970s, Sikhs are exempt from wearing crash-helmets when riding motorcycles. They wear a smaller head-covering under the famous turban, and that may not be covered for religious reasons. But the wearing of a ceremonial knife is also permitted, although this has never been a matter of concern as it would have been had this special dispensation been made for Muslims. In an imaginary opinion poll (if they dared to ask such a question, and if anyone dared to answer it), most white British people of voting age would rate Sikhs very low on the scale of representing any perceived threat. Quite the opposite. The Gurdwara, the Sikh temple, is not only always open, but it always has free food. It did so during Covid, when homeless people had trouble eating. The press didn’t really mention that during lockdown, because they were not the approved religion and the threat of violence if they don’t get their way has never been present in Sikhism as it is in Islam. They need no special pleading such as Muslims get from the mainstream media (MSM) and the political class on a daily basis. Also, a central belief of Sikhism is that men and women are equal, unlike other popular religions in the UK. However, for all this apparent peacefulness, Sikhs can carry knives. Existing laws on all religious exemptions are very porous, and this dispensation has never actually been formally passed as legislation, it just sort of happened, the same as the crash-helmet exemption. In the UK, when a black or brown person says jump, the government simply asks, “How high?” Back to the murder weapon.

The ceremonial weapon worn by some Sikhs is called a kirpan. It has no stipulated size, and should never be used except in self-defense, and even then, not against an unarmed person. They don’t just give them to you if you turn up at the Gurdwara wearing a turban and claiming to come from that part of the world which is now divided between India and Pakistan, where Sikhism began. You have to pass through the “Five Ks,” the initiatory stages in Sikhism. No one in the media, MSM or dissident, has clarified whether Digwa had passed the required tests to carry a kirpan, some of which are so small as to resemble jewelry. Back to the crime scene.

In the UK, and it may be the same in the US and Europe, the police, ambulance, and fire services are called “first responders.” I have seen many videos that suggest that first-responders are often people who are not getting paid for stopping some altercation, ie., the public, but we’ll let that lie. What was the first response of these first responders after Henry Nowak had been stabbed? One video can be seen here, and it gives a fuller account of the incident than just the bodycam footage (a welcome legacy of George Floyd’s death). That is readily available online, as is the audio of Digwa’s brother’s call. It should be watched, because the most noisome thing about it is the bored apathy of the police, one of whom was a woman. All officers present at the scene have now deleted their social media accounts, and one has resigned from the police force. All of them may face prosecution.

In the video, Henry can be heard saying, repeatedly, “I’ve been stabbed”. He says it nine times, in total. His voice is slurred, as though he were drunk, undoubtedly because his own blood was now in his throat and mouth. One of the police officers responds to his claim of having been stabbed by saying, “I don’t think you have, mate.” The police, you see, are not attending a crime scene involving a stabbing, they are attending a crime scene involving racism, a far more heinous offense in the modern UK. Hampshire Police posted a Tweet concerning the incident:

Our officers were misled at the scene, including denial of weapon use. They quickly switched to life-saving aid in minutes, but, as laid out in our statement, the medical evidence shows that the injuries were not survivable. A very sad case, and our thoughts are with his family.

Note that “being misled” did not include the false accusations of racism which effectively helped to hasten Henry’s death. When the bodycam footage was released showing that the officers did no such thing as help Henry, the Tweet was quickly deleted. What the officers actually did was to handcuff Henry, good and tight, as he was quoting George Floyd in saying “I can’t breathe.” He says this four times. Digwa himself was not handcuffed, as the police saw him as victim rather than perpetrator. In fact, the police treated him rather well. When he arrived at Southampton police station, he was shown into the kitchen to choose some food, much like a restaurant. Sikhs have special dietary requirements, you understand, so you can’t just give them anything to eat. Digwa’s mother was also involved, taking the knife and hiding it. When the police later visited Digwa’s home and saw his bedroom, they found 20 knives there. Digwa had previously been filmed threatening a motorist with a knife during a so-called “road-rage” incident. It would be fair to say that he had an obsession with bladed instruments. The police also found Henry’s phone in Digwa’s possession. Officers checked it at length for any evidence of racism.

The last thing Henry Nowak heard in this life was his rights being read to him by a bored-sounding policeman (this is called “Mirandizing” in the US). The famous line from this reading of the rights is “You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say may be taken down and used against you in evidence.” Henry exercised his right to remain silent, in a way, as he was dead. Henry bled out handcuffed on a cold pavement, effectively drowning in his own blood as it filled his lungs. Two pints of blood were found to be in his chest cavity at autopsy. In the video, you will see Henry’s hand as he is cuffed. Note its pallor. It took 1 minute and 33 seconds after their arrival for the police to check if Henry, who they saw as a racist perp, was okay. He was very far from okay. As noted, despite telling police nine times that he had been stabbed, their response was, “I don’t think you have, mate.” Mate. The police are obliged to call ordinary citizens “sir” or “madam,” but if you heard a police officer refer to anyone by these titles today, it would be like seeing a penny-farthing bicycle. “Has anyone been hurt other than him?” the officer asks Digwa in the video. “Yeah, me,” the killer replies. “He knocked my turban off and I’ve got a bruise on my eye.” Neither of these statements was true. The practiced ease with which the brothers make accusations of racism which were enough for the police is also worth noting.

The media made little or no mention of the murder of Henry Nowak until now, six months later, when their hand has been forced by a mounting outrage that may push the famously tolerant British people over the edge. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had made an outraged squeal on social media a few days earlier about a mosque shooting in San Diego, said nothing until the killing could no longer be ignored. Starmer also “took the knee” after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, some 4,000 miles from London. Floyd was someone else who complained that he couldn’t breathe as he was dying, although unlike Henry Nowak, Floyd was full of Fentanyl, a powerful and deadly narcotic.

This piece, from Britain’s Left-wing newspaper of record The Guardian, gives the full story, and one paragraph stands out:

Hampshire police have apologised for their actions, which received global attention after being criticised by the owner of X, Elon Musk. The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, is investigating the incident.

Hampshire police also took Henry’s phone, found in Digwa’s pocket, as well as Henry’s father’s phone, to look for evidence of racism. They checked every message for racist content. As is now well known, British police arrest 12,000 people a year for social media commentary, far more than any other country. Russia arrests 400, mostly for comments which term the Ukraine conflict as a “war” rather than a “military operation.”

The political fallout was predictable. The Prime Minister’s comment was anodyne, and the worst thing about it is that it will not have been prompted by any personal belief or principle, neither of which affect Starmer, but will have been suggested and written by a policy advisor. Nigel Farage, widely tipped to replace Starmer at some point if he can stay alive, made the crucial point, saying that “an accusation of a racial slur was treated more seriously than an act of murder.” He suggested that “we respond to this with pure, cold rage.” This, of course, enraged the liberal Left, and Farage was accused of “sowing division,” another pair of weasel-words beloved of the Left and the political class, which are really the same thing. The BBC’s Matt Chorley deliberately misquoted Farage, claiming that he has said “white, cold rage.” The BBC was forced to issue an apology. Farage also mentioned Allison Pearson, a well-known British journalist recently harassed by the police for comments on social media. She received an email from a Hampshire police officer. Officers, the man said, were told in no uncertain terms that they must respond “in different ways according to the ethnicity of those involved.” He added that promotion within the force was made on the basis of color or religion rather than ability. Farage pointed out that the 21-year sentence Digwa was handed down was less than the statutory minimum for a sustained, aggressive assault leading to death. Farage is writing to the Attorney General to review the sentence. He also used five words that have been a long time coming from any politician; “Enough of anti-white prejudice.”

Rupert Lowe, leader of the fast-rising Restore Britain party, Tweeted that his party, if in power, would restore the death penalty for killers such as Digwa. The judge at Southampton Crown Court, of course, could not impose such a sentence, but some of his concerns were puzzling. “You have brought shame on your family and your religion” he told Digwa, as though that were of any importance. “You have stirred up racial tensions in Southampton which has caused many Sikhs to fear for their safety.” How could he know this? Had he spoken to Southampton’s Sikh community? This seems unlikely. Digwa’s mother was also convicted of hiding the murder weapon, the judge saying to Digwa that “You bear some responsibility for the offense committed by your mother. When you asked her to take the murder weapon away from you, your mother has remained in custody for the last seven months.” Digwa’s mother will be sentenced on June 27. She was led away into custody raging that the judge was racist. The Digwa family are asking for privacy. “We apologize to the Sikh community,” they said in a statement. The Sikh Federation has criticized the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) for stating that Henry was killed by a kirpan. They are right to do so. Digwa had two blades, the murder weapon, which is not recognized as a kirpan, and the ceremonial kirpan itself. As noted, no source has clarified whether Digwa was entitled to wear the ceremonial knife, but he did not use it to kill Henry Nowak.

The Nowak family, led by Henry’s father, Mark, behaved with great dignity, although he did not make the baffling move that many parents of slain children by forgiving Digwa. “Let me be clear. We hold Vikrum Digwa solely and 100% responsible for the brutal murder of our son.”

Curiously, I had spent the previous week watching videos about serial-killers for a piece on the Zodiac Killer. I had heard about slayings, stabbings, shootings, heads in refrigerators, bodies in tubs of acid, bones dug from pleasant suburban gardens. You would think I would have been ready for the details of Henry Nowak’s murder. Not so. I have watched the footage many times, and you would think you would become inured to it, but it just gets worse every time. It’s the little things. It’s the boredom in the voices of the police officers. It’s the fact that they viewed the crime as one involving racism and not murderous violence by a brown-skinned person. It’s the handcuffing of a dying boy who told them he had been stabbed. “I don’t think you have, mate.”

There have already been near-riots in Southampton. These may spread, and Henry may become a white George Floyd despite the attempts by the political class and the Left to prevent that eventuality. Henry Nowak’s death may or may not be a tipping-point in a country so close to tipping that it is only a matter of time before something resembling a civil war, and even a race war, begins. It is, unfortunately, absolutely necessary. Whites must, they have to, stop accepting their degradation and fight back. The only positive thing to come from the killing of Henry Nowak is that blancophobia, the fear and hatred of white people, exists and is written into the official guidelines for policing. “Two-tier policing” can no longer be denied by the political class and their media courtiers.

It is now clear that the police really are “institutionally racist,” as they were branded in the infamous McPherson Report after the death of the black youth, Steven Lawrence. It is just that the institutional racism is deliberately directed towards white people, who are both hated and hunted. There will be blood. Henry Nowak’s was the first stream. Let it become a mighty river.

https://counter-currents.com/2026/06/the-killing-of-henry-nowak