Dying student in handcuff image stirs outrage in Britain

SOUTHAMPTON: Body camera footage of a dying student who was handcuffed by British police after being stabbed by a Sikh man and falsely accused of racially abusing his murderer sparked outrage Tuesday.

Eighteen-year-old Henry Nowak is heard repeatedly telling police “I can’t breathe” in the footage captured as he lay mortally wounded in December after a night out with his football team members.

A judge on Monday jailed his killer, 23-year-old Sikh Vickrum Digwa, for at least 21 years for stabbing Nowak to death with a ceremonial knife with a 21cm (eight-inch) blade.

When police arrived at the scene in the south coast city of Southampton, Digwa lied to officers, telling them Nowak had racially insulted him and that he was the victim.

Home Secretary Mahmood urges people not to allow the murder to ‘turn communities against one another’

The footage, which was played during Digwa’s trial, shows police accepting the aggressor’s accusation, and rather than helping Nowak, initially handcuffing him despite his pleas that he had been stabbed and could not breathe.

One officer can be heard asking Nowak: “You’ve been stabbed, whereabouts?” before adding: “Don’t think you have, mate.” Moments later the young student collapsed and became unconscious.

Speaking after Digwa was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court, Nowak’s father Mark described the police treatment of his son as “shocking”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the “awful, shocking case” on X on Monday, saying it was right the independent police complaints watchdog was investigating officers’ “response to (Nowak’s) senseless murder”.

He called Nowak’s treatment “inhumane and degrading… his murderer, however, was afforded decency. He was believed”. The family gave permission for police to release the bodycam footage.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Tuesday urged people not to allow the murder to “turn communities against one another”. “We must condemn those who seek personal political profit from tragedy,” she said in parliament.

Main opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and far-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for changes to police diversity policies.

Farage said there needed to be an end to “anti-white prejudice” and recognition that “white lives matter”.

‘Two-tier culture’

He said Nowak’s words echoed the 2020 case of George Floyd, a black man killed by police in the United States. “I can’t breathe. Familiar words. Remember career criminal George Floyd, who died in appalling circumstances in Midwest America,” Farage said.

At the time “Keir Starmer was taking the knee. Black Lives Matter exploded all over the country. Churchill’s statue was defaced,” Farage said.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2026

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