Police Apologize for Handcuffing Dying Teen as Killer Convicted

A jury at Southampton Crown Court in Hampshire, England found Vickrum Digwa, 23, guilty of murder and carrying a knife in a public place on Thursday afternoon, according to Breitbart News. The killer had told what prosecutors described as a wicked lie about his victim, Anglo-Polish student Henry Nowak, allegedly committing racist abuse against him to cover up the stabbing.

The jury of eight women and four men began deliberations at midday on Wednesday before returning their verdict the following afternoon. Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, was also found guilty of assisting an offender after she removed the murder weapon from the scene and concealed it at their family home.

The BBC reports that Digwa displayed no emotion as the verdict was read, while Kaur was visibly upset and sobs could be heard from the public gallery.

Police welcomed the conviction but issued an apology for having believed the knifeman’s false allegations, meaning Nowak’s final conscious moments were spent handcuffed while officers told him he was lying about being stabbed.

Nowak and Digwa encountered each other by chance in Southampton on December 3rd, 2025, as Breitbart News reports. The court heard that the accountancy and finance student had been socializing with friends from his student football team and had consumed alcohol that evening, though he was not intoxicated at the time of his death and could have legally operated a vehicle.

Following a verbal exchange, Digwa chased and stabbed Nowak five times, including twice in the back of the legs and once in the chest. After a delay that apparently allowed several members of Digwa’s family to arrive at the scene, police were eventually called and told there had been a racist attack with no mention of a stabbing.

When officers arrived they arrested the now-dying Henry Nowak and ignored his repeated protests that he had been stabbed until it became impossible to deny that he was drowning in his own blood. Officers then attempted resuscitation and summoned an air ambulance, but Nowak was later declared dead at the scene.

Police bodycam footage shown earlier in the trial revealed officers arriving to find Nowak being held against a wall by Digwa’s father, who accused the victim of pretending to be injured while the teenager complained he could not breathe. Nowak’s chest cavity was filling with blood at that moment because one of his knife wounds had severed an artery.

The video showed police arresting Nowak as he lay on his side on the ground, again attempting to tell officers he had been stabbed, to which an unseen male replied he did not think that was true.

A police spokesman apologized for officers having arrested the slain teenager at the crime scene, insisting they were acting on the information provided and citing the pathologist who stated officers would not have been able to save Nowak from the deep wound even if they had believed him immediately.

Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Robert France said Hampshire police had referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over the death and that an independent investigation was underway. He acknowledged the unspeakable tragedy and expressed deep regret that Nowak could not be saved and that in his final conscious moments he had been handcuffed and arrested.

France noted that the facts presented in court should leave no doubt about who was lying to officers that night. He emphasized that Nowak’s injury was deep and internal, with bleeding that led to his death occurring internally. The pathologist was clear that there was nothing officers could have done to save the young man’s life that day.

Following the guilty verdict, it was revealed that an anti-two tier policing protest had been scheduled for Thursday night outside Southampton Central Police Station over the force’s reflexive instinct to believe the racism accusation while dismissing the factual stabbing report.

Digwa will be sentenced on Monday. Kaur’s sentencing has been delayed until July 17th to allow preparation of a pre-sentencing report, Sky News reports.

With information from Breitbart News