{"id":617469,"date":"2026-06-02T18:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/617469\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T18:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:29:15","slug":"shabana-mahmood-warns-of-dangerous-undercurrent-after-murder-of-henry-nowak-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/617469\/","title":{"rendered":"Shabana Mahmood warns of \u2018dangerous undercurrent\u2019 after murder of Henry Nowak | Police"},"content":{"rendered":"

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood<\/a>, has warned of a \u201cdangerous undercurrent\u201d in the wake of the murder of Henry Nowak, who was falsely accused of racism by a Sikh man who had fatally stabbed him with a ceremonial dagger.<\/p>\n

Vickrum Digwa, 23, was sentenced on Monday to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years<\/a> for the December 2025 murder of 18-year-old Nowak.<\/p>\n

Digwa falsely claimed he had been racially abused and attacked by Nowak and told police that the teenager knocked his turban off and caused an eye injury.<\/p>\n

Hampshire police released footage from body-worn cameras showing Nowak being handcuffed despite repeatedly telling police officers that he had been stabbed. At one point an officer tells him: \u201cI don\u2019t think you have, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage<\/a>, has called for \u201cpure cold rage\u201d over the disturbing case, which has sparked widespread criticism including on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn accusation of a racial slur was treated more seriously than an act of murder,\u201d Farage said.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the Commons, Mahmood said one officer had already been misidentified and had had to move out of his home to protect himself and his family after receiving death threats.<\/p>\n

She told MPs: \u201cThe police in this country have a sacred duty: to police without fear or favour. Everyone in this country is equal before the law. It is the promise upon which our whole justice system rests, and the equality of every citizen is the foundation on which the openness, tolerance and generosity of this country rests.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cThreats against police officers are utterly unacceptable. There can be no justification for intimidation, abuse or attempts to take the law into one\u2019s own hands. A police officer unrelated to this case has been misidentified online and subjected to death threats. He has been forced to relocate to protect himself and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMisinformation and inflammatory commentary is making a dreadful situation even worse. We must all, together, condemn it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hampshire Police<\/a> Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers in the constabulary, echoed the sentiment in a statement. \u201cThe Police Federation condemns in the strongest possible terms the calls for mob or vigilante justice against officers we have seen in recent days,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has included police officers being wrongly identified as being involved in the incident and personal details such as home address being widely published. We call on politicians of all parties and media commentators to be more responsible in their comments \u2013 and allow due process for the officers involved to ensue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil Basu, a former assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan police and the most senior minority ethnic police officer in Britain, said he felt compelled to appear on LBC to address Farage\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is inflammatory, it is extremist, it is divisive,\u201d Basu told the radio broadcaster. \u201cIt\u2019s everything the family didn\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLanguage that has been used by people like Farage, yet again \u2013 he did this following [the 2024] Southport [stabbings], he\u2019s doing it again, he\u2019s doing it for political points,\u201d Basu added.<\/p>\n

In a statement outside court, Nowak\u2019s father, Mark Nowak, said: \u201cWe want to use Henry\u2019s heartbreaking story to make change for the better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We want his story to help make our streets safer for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAs the KC for the prosecution summed up in court: This is not a case about Sikhism. This is not a case about racism. This is a case about murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

The policing watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), has been investigating the contact Hampshire and Isle of Wight officers had with Nowak immediately before his death on 4 December last year. Mahmood told the comment the IOPC should report back on its findings within three months.<\/p>\n

The attorney general\u2019s office said it had received \u201cmultiple requests\u201d to review Digwa\u2019s sentence under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the office said: \u201cThe law officers have 28 days from sentencing to carefully consider the case and make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Digwa used what the judge described as a \u201clarge Sikh dagger\u201d to stab Nowak to death in December 2025.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued via the Sikh Press Association on Tuesday, members of Digwa\u2019s family expressed sorrow for the Nowak\u2019s family\u2019s suffering. They said: \u201cWe love Vickrum. We will continue to love him. That love does not stand in opposition to the sorrow we feel for the Nowak family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe apologise to the Sikh community for our son\u2019s actions which have unfairly brought the community into disrepute. We ask that this tragedy is not used by anyone to inflame division or hostility towards any community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The police and crime commissioner for Hampshire is leading calls for a review of religious exemptions on the carrying of knives after the murder.<\/p>\n

Donna Jones described the stabbing of the university student as a \u201cnational tragedy\u201d and said she was writing to the prime minister, Keir Starmer, about the issue.<\/p>\n

Hampshire police have apologised for their actions, which received global attention after being criticised by the owner of X, Elon Musk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has warned of a \u201cdangerous undercurrent\u201d in the wake of the murder of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-617469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}