UK police watchdog to report on student murder within three months, government says

An independent watchdog is expected to report within three months on why British police handcuffed murder victim Henry Nowak as he lay fatally wounded, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said, as pressure mounted for answers in a case that has shocked the country.

Nowak, an 18-year-old student, was restrained by officers after he was stabbed by a Sikh man wielding a ceremonial knife.

When police arrived at the scene in Southampton on 3 December 2025, his attacker, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, claimed he had been targeted in a racist assault.

On Tuesday, Digwa was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve at least 21 years for the killing.

Watch: Bodycam footage shows police handcuffing Henry Nowak

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said its investigators, who are due to meet with Nowak’s family, are reviewing a substantial volume of body-worn camera footage along with evidence shown during Digwa’s trial.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the watchdog inquiry must move “as quickly as possible” and deliver answers.

Starmer, who is understood to have watched footage of the “awful, shocking” encounter several times, told cabinet colleagues it was “right” that the IOPC was scrutinising the conduct of the officers involved.

His spokesman said the prime minister had paid tribute to the “kind, thoughtful and much-loved” teenager, whose life was “ripped away in the most appalling circumstances”.

The spokesman added: “The prime minister said that in his last harrowing moments, Henry was then handcuffed by the police as he lay dying on the floor.

“The prime minister said it was right that the IOPC was investigating the police response, which he said needed to be carried out as quickly as possible and answers delivered, and said the thoughts of the whole cabinet were with Henry’s family today.”

The blade used to kill Henry Nowak (Pic: Crown Prosecution Service)

Mahmood called the use of a ceremonial weapon in the attack a “vile act”, while cautioning against blaming members of the Sikh faith for a murder they had no part in.

The case has also prompted demands for fresh scrutiny of legal exemptions tied to carrying blades for religious reasons.

Mahmood said she intended to speak with Sikh community leaders about how to strike the right balance between religious liberty and public safety, though she signalled she was not planning to open a formal review.

Addressing the House of Commons, she said the law may permit the carrying of a ceremonial knife in limited circumstances, but it does not shield criminal use of such a weapon.

“Let me be clear, carrying a knife for the purpose of religious observance is one thing.

“Using it, as so tragically occurred in this case, is quite another.

“It is a vile act, a crime of the utmost severity, and it will be met with the severest punishment.”

Mahmood said: “The wider question is something that is worthy of serious consideration”, adding that any response would require consultation with the Sikh community, campaigners against knife crime and police.

“That, I think, is the right way to proceed, rather than launching a formal review, because actually, as the judge found in this case, this was not an act of religious observance.

“The minute that knife was unsheathed to be used, it became a murder weapon, and the murderer has now faced the full force of the law,” she said.

Mahmood said the Offensive Weapons Act of 2019 had “clarified and strengthened” the legal protections already in place around carrying kirpan blades.

“This included extending defences, so that kirpans can be lawfully possessed for religious reasons and used in religious and ceremonial contexts,” she added.

Vickrum Digwa was ordered to serve a minimum sentence of 21 years (Pic: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary)

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the case raised “troubling consequences” and pointed to what he called a “two-tier culture”.

“Sikhs are permitted to carry as many and as large a weapon as they like on the streets of Britain without any good cause,” he wrote in a letter to Attorney General for England and Wales Richard Hermer.

Farage said Nowak was “treated in a way that meant an accusation of a racial slur was treated more seriously than an act of murder”, in a video statement.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Farage of fuelling division, saying police must treat people equally regardless of race.

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said there should be “no two-tier policing, no believing that racism only happens to ethnic minorities”.

She added: “It happens to everyone. And the police need to be trained like that, not with the terrible anti-racism training, which is just reverse racism and reverse discrimination.”

Asked whether police training should change, Starmer’s spokesman said the prime minister would not “prejudge” the outcome of the IOPC investigation, adding: “We’re categorical that the police must treat everyone equally.”

The attorney general’s office is now considering the sentence handed to Digwa after calls for it to be reviewed.