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SARAH VINE: Poor Henry Nowak died like a dog on the pavement and not one officer tried to save his life. We all know the reason why... it's tearing this country apart

By SARAH VINE, COLUMNIST PUBLISHED: 20:55 EDT, 2 June 2026 | UPDATED: 20:55 EDT, 2 June 2026

Overwhelming sadness. Heartbreaking, gut-wrenching helplessness and rage. That is what I felt when I saw the footage of that poor boy, Henry Nowak, dying like a dog on the pavement.No one should perish like that.Surrounded by hostile strangers – the police and his killer – without a kind word or a gentle touch, handcuffs on his wrists, mockery in his ears, blood filling his lungs. ‘I’ve been stabbed’ he gasps. ‘I don’t think you have, mate,’ scoffs one of the officers, his voice dripping with contempt.

Can you imagine the heartbreak for this teenager’s parents and family? Their son dying at the hands of a cowardly brute, a thug who had left his house carrying not one but two ceremonial knives: a liar and a fantasist who, in a venal attempt to save his own skin, ensured that Henry was denied even the tiniest crumb of comfort in his final moments, and whose lies might have prevented his victim’s life from being saved.

The Nowak family’s dignity and restraint in the face of such narcissistic evil are nothing short of heroic. To have to sit in court alongside the relatives of this creature, to have to tolerate his supporters, despite all the evidence, still playing the race card, requires hearts of oak. ‘How can you say they’re not racist?’ screamed a young Asian woman as the killer, Vickrum Digwa, was led to the cells. An elderly man in a turban hurled insults at Henry’s lawyer, calling him a ‘f****** bean-head’. How? How dare they? They too must have seen this footage. Have they no compassion, no humanity, no shame? Apparently not. It’s clear the Digwa clan see themselves as victims. As his mother awaits sentencing for her part in Henry’s death (she was found guilty of trying to stash the murder weapon back at the family home), they issued a statement.

Teenager Henry Nowak died after being stabbed, with handcuffs on his wrists, blood filling his lungs, and mockery in his ears from the officers at the scene

The Nowak family’s dignity and restraint in the face of such narcissistic evil are nothing short of heroic, writes Sarah Vine (Pictured: Henry with his father Mark)

Police treated Henry with a lack of urgency after his killer, Vickrum Digwa, told them of a potential racist incident. Such is the power of the ‘R’ word, our columnist observes

They apologised in a perfunctory manner for ‘the pain and suffering the Nowak family has had to endure,’ then quickly added: ‘We love Vickrum. We will continue to love him.’ They then issued another apology to the Sikh community ‘for our son’s actions which have unfairly brought the community into disrepute’. As if that’s what matters. Seriously? It would be better if they said nothing at all.

I defy anyone to watch the footage of that poor boy drowning in his own blood and not be overcome with emotion.

Henry’s dying plea – ‘I can’t breathe’ – as his killer claims a non-existent eye injury and lies that his victim ‘hasn’t been stabbed’. At this, the officer replies, ‘I know, but we have to check, don’t we?’ – as if Henry’s suffering were nothing more than an inconvenience.

The officers handle him roughly, dragging him across gravel and pulling his hands behind his back to cuff him. Did that hasten his death, put extra strain on his already damaged lungs?

They read him his rights, but already he seems unresponsive. I know it was dark and a fast-moving situation, but still. What must that poor boy have felt as the darkness closed in? Just a kid: not much younger than my own son. He too is a student; he too likes a night out; he too has an older sister. The world is full of Henrys, young men just starting out on life’s journey. None of them deserve his fate.

People have drawn parallels with the George Floyd case in America, the one that sparked worldwide riots and the whole ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. Ordinarily, I would say such comparisons are invidious, but I’m afraid there are undeniable similarities here.

Floyd’s last words were also ‘I can’t breathe’, which became a rallying slogan for the protests. Given that, you might have thought Henry’s killing would provoke a similar sense of outrage. But strangely, all the usual suspects, the rent-a-mob Corbynistas, the ‘anti-fascist’ agitators, the woke warriors and Sunday Sandinistas suddenly seem otherwise engaged.

The problem, you see, is that Henry’s death doesn’t fit their narrative – because he was white. And white people can’t ever be victims of racism – or of other ethnicities.

That’s why no one believed Henry when he said he had been stabbed. That’s why not one of the attending police tried to save his life until it was far too late. It’s almost as if, in the minds of these officers, a potential racist incident was far more urgent and more serious than a potential murder. Henry repeatedly tells them he’s been stabbed, but the only voice they hear is that of his killer. Such is the power of the ‘R’ word. This was not responsible policing, it was ‘suicidal empathy’ in action: the logical conclusion of a mindset that casts certain groups as victims and assumes others are always the aggressor.

It’s the kind of cultural and racial profiling that is tearing this country apart.

Henry’s treatment by the police is a terrible metaphor for the way our society has been warped by the toxic culture wars that have dominated over the past decade. This injustice is not just an awful, one-off misunderstanding but part of a clear, undeniable pattern that goes to the heart of why so many people feel marginalised, misunderstood, victimised – and why Britain is slowly falling apart at the seams.

I wonder what would happen if people took to the streets in protest? Inevitably, they would be cast as ‘far-Right’ and ‘racist’ for daring to speak out about the death of a white teenager at the hands of an Asian man.

Some might even find themselves arrested and imprisoned, and politicians would no doubt call for ‘calm’, as the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood did yesterday.

At the time of the Floyd riots, Keir Starmer made an impassioned speech about this career criminal and infamously ‘took the knee’ along with his deputy Angela Rayner. Half the parliamentary Labour party did the same on a grass lawn outside the Houses of Parliament.

Henry’s death merited little more from Starmer than a lukewarm post on X bemoaning ‘knife crime’. The obvious truth is that Britain’s police and courts now operate a two-tier justice system.

Situations are not assessed or responded to on the basis of evidence, but according to a system of pre-existing assumptions and deep-seated bias. Henry’s case is shocking – but far from isolated. ‘Cultural sensitivities’ have been a mitigating factor in the way crimes are handled for years now, from the Pakistani rape gangs to the Manchester Arena bombers (security guard Kyle Lawler told the inquiry he had a ‘bad feeling’ about the terrorist Salman Abedi but did not approach him for fear of being branded a racist) and more recent cases still.

Yes, in the past, the police and courts have been guilty of racial bias. But we have come a long way since the days of Stephen Lawrence’s murder in 1993 and the mishandling of the case against his killers, which led to the Macpherson Report six years later and the branding of the Metropolitan Police as ‘institutionally racist’. This newspaper was instrumental in finally bringing two of Stephen’s killers to book, and in highlighting the flaws in the system that led to them almost escaping justice. Now that pendulum seems to have swung too far the other way, and our country is facing a new threat.

If our politicians, police and judiciary don’t step up and restore some sort of balance, the resentment and rage that ordinary people feel will continue to fester – and become a cancer that rots us from within.

Hi Everyone,

You may have noticed I have been blogging today. After nearly a month of my dark night of the soul ie losing Bobby I am now starting to feel like facing the world again.

It's been really hard because we lost the most beautiful companion and family member too early for his age. Only our pets are capable of giving us unconditional love and acceptance - we humans just rarely ever do that. He could have lived till 15 years or more. So it's been hard.

To add to that hubby has again been referred back to his Consultant as his wound is weeping yet again and we see her on this coming Wednesday - this happenned shortly after Bobby died

The main thing is we have our beloved Bobby's ashes back, he came home and that put our minds at ease and every day we see signs that he is still with us.

Last night in the bedroom before sleep I smelt his fur - like when he was wet. This morning I kept finding white feathers when I was cleaning upstairs and we don't have feather pillows so I know he is sending us signs to comfort us.

Bobby was our third dog - we loved them all but he was very special indeed. Gentle, loving, affectionate, barky for his treats and great with the children. We miss him every day and some days I still cry when the pain of grief becomes so much it spills over. As we all know, grief is love with nowhere to go and that's a hard lesson to learn but the days are becoming easier bit by bit.

Thank you all for your love, prayers and kind messages and in tribute to that there is a short AI created video of our boy loving life over the rainbow bridge at the top of this post. May his little spirit shine forever.

Thank you all and God Bless xxx

Thank you for your trust in me and for your patience ...

I repost a lot of things because they truly deserve to be shared with others and I welcome anyone who chooses to repost any thing that I post ...

I still have Faith in GOD and in the goodness of the people that follow me and openly express themselves since, courage to stand for what we believe is right has been pushed aside by hate and anger, so I thank you all for standing together with me ...

On top of that, almost a week ago when the cold set in for the first time my left knee swelled up to double it's size, and my left hip is in so much pain too. These are new ailments and I can find little relief even with a heating pad. I take almost no pills whatsoever and am realizing that now I may have to. I am fighting it.

I live in a very safe gated community. I never saw this coming. I feel absolutely violated. Whoever would have thought it would be Merry Maids that did this?

I will most likely delete this sad tale. Right now I am so freaked out. Not sure I can even prove the theft. No one has been in my home this last month but my son, he is a branch bank manager. 🙄

Miserable. Send kind thoughts.

Edited. This amount stolen was three to four hundred dollars. My son had brought it over so that it was available to tip the Merry Maids in person. Luckily I keep no other cash. I kept hardly any keepsakes, I gave them all away to family. My whole kitchen and living room furniture were given away when I moved. But I am working through the stages of this.

No peace inward yet. Trying. n

It has been very difficult.

Most of the times i want to run away ...

I love being at home in my own little corner. But nowdays I try to spend as much time as possible away from home.

When I wake up I realize I have to forget my way of being, almost erase my personality, to appease...

May God forgive me, because if I'm lucky enough to reach their age, I'll certainly be worse, but it seems that older people lose the ability to regulate their temper and are so mean.

May God protect us and not forsake us in these difficult times. May we have the patience to understand that, above all, the elderly have lost the capacity for empathy. And in particular, may God forgive me for having feelings of anger and rage because I seem like a punching bag to my elderly parents.

Thank you again @skippyv20 for your message, it seems it was meant for me.

And even more so on this very special day, which is All Saints' Day.

Hi all, just to let you know I am going to take some time out from Tumblr - perhaps for a couple of months or more.

Hubby is now scheduled for his operation on the 27th October and it is extremely major surgery.

He will have part of two ribs removed and plastic surgery involving deep muscle extensions to cover the area. A team of 2 Consultants - one a thoracic surgeon and the other a plastic surgeon will be performing a 5-6 hour surgery and he will have a 24 hour anaesthetic and will be in intensive care for 2 days post surgery. Like me he is no spring chicken so it won't be an easy ride for him bless his heart.

I haven't been sleeping well as I am worried for him and we have a lot to do before he goes into hospital plus our twice weekly surgery visits for his dressings so I am feeling tired and stressed lately hence me backing off blogging recently.

His recovery time will be around 6 weeks after a 10 day hospital stay and I will be driving for 2 hours a day to visit him - if I take the train it will be longer so it will be quite a busy period for us and I must prioritise my husband getting through this with my support and love.

Thank you for all your kind messages of support and your friendship and love but it's time now for me to go totally quiet on here for a while.