British Home Office Accused of Pressuring Henry Nowak’s Family
A British deradicalization agency allegedly manipulated the family of stabbed teenager Henry Nowak to prevent unrest after his killer falsely claimed to be a victim of racism.
The Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), an agency within the Home Office, ensured that “the care team responsible for the family was comprehensively informed,” an anonymous source told the Daily Mail on Saturday, according to Junge Freiheit. The family’s public statement reportedly resembled those of other families in “explosive situations,” with sources claiming they could recognize the agency’s “handwriting” in the text.
Henry Nowak, eighteen years old, died in December after being repeatedly stabbed with an eight-inch ceremonial dagger by Vickrum Digwa, a British citizen of Indian Sikh heritage. Despite suffering life-threatening injuries, Nowak was arrested at the scene after Digwa and his brother Gurpreet falsely reported to police that they had been victims of a racist attack.
Body camera footage from the incident shows a police officer denying that an attack on Nowak had even occurred. In his final moments, the teenager told officers nine times that he could not breathe and four times that he had been stabbed. Instead of receiving medical assistance, he was dragged across gravel, handcuffed, and read his rights. Those were the last words Henry Nowak heard before dying.
Family Accuses Police of Treating Dying Son as Criminal
Following the conviction of Digwa for murder, Nowak’s family raised serious allegations against the police. They stated that rather than being treated as a dying victim, Henry was arrested and read his rights, which was the last thing he heard. The family also called for action against the “epidemic of knife crime” while emphasizing they did not want his death to contribute to “further division.”
Three days after Nowak’s death, police were preparing to issue a press release claiming that the perpetrator and his brother had been attacked by an “unknown person.” Only an intervention by the horrified family prevented the release of this statement, the Sunday Times reported.
Government Agency Works to Shape Public Narratives
The RICU, established in 2007 as part of the Prevent extremism prevention program, is responsible for strategic crisis communications. The agency has reportedly also been working with police in Northern Ireland to track down individuals calling for protests after an attempted knife murder in Belfast. It is also crafting “strategic messages” for officers to portray demonstration participants as “unsympathetic criminals” in order to enforce “behavioral change.”
According to the Daily Mail, internal government sources complain that the agency has become “out of control.” The organization previously opposed ending the registration of “hate speech” below the criminal threshold.
After an Islamist terrorist attack in London in 2017, undercover RICU operatives reportedly laid flowers at the scene. The goal, according to the Daily Mail, was to create an atmosphere of “mourning” rather than “anti-Islamic anger.” The agency also frequently uses social networks to influence debates among specific target groups.
With information from Junge Freiheit
