The family of Henry Nowak have said the trauma of learning he had been murdered was made worse by watching police footage of officers handcuffing him as he lay dying. In an ITV documentary, Dear Henry: Our Fight For Justice, his father Mark, stepmother Katie, mother Lucy and sister Olivia spoke about the night they were told of his death and the impact of the body-worn camera video. Katie said their world had changed twice: first when they learned Henry had died, and again when they watched the footage.
Henry, 18, from Chafford Hundred in Essex, was a first-year accountancy and finance student at the University of Southampton. He was stabbed five times as he walked home from a night out with friends from his football team in Southampton on 3 December 2025. It took officers another 24 hours to identify his body and tell his family. His killer, Vickrum Digwa, falsely told police Henry had racially abused him, and officers handcuffed the student as he repeatedly said he had been stabbed. In the video, Henry can be heard saying he had been stabbed, to which an officer replies: "Don't think you have, mate." The murder caused widespread political outrage when the footage emerged.
Katie described seeing a police car on their driveway and an officer holding his hat, saying she knew immediately something horrific had happened. She said Mark fell to his knees when he heard the news and let out a cry she would never forget. Mark said he remembered saying "it's Henry" and breaking down in tears. Lucy said officers knocked on her door at one o'clock in the morning and asked if she had a son called Henry before telling her there had been an altercation and that her son had passed away. Olivia said she rang her father after hearing the news and remembered him screaming "My boy, my boy". She now keeps some of Henry's T-shirts on his bed and said they still smell of him and give her comfort, while Lucy said she can no longer enter his bedroom and has hung coats over the door so she does not have to look at it.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced an independent review into the murder, led by former lord chancellor Alex Chalk, which will look at any missed opportunities to intervene. Chalk said serious questions had been raised about whether agencies and organisations failed to act on complaints about Digwa's violent and erratic behaviour. He said his review would follow the evidence without fear or favour and would also examine how public authorities treated the Nowak family at a time of unimaginable pain. A watchdog investigation is also looking at whether race, religion or prejudice affected police decisions, and is expected to conclude early next year.
Digwa's mother, Kiran Kaur, was jailed for three years for assisting an offender after she removed the knife used by her son. Dear Henry: Our Fight For Justice, a Tonight special, airs on Thursday 5 November at 21:00 GMT on ITV, ITVX and the ITV News YouTube channel.
Sources: BBC News UK.