A coroner has ordered a full jury inquest into the death of Henry Nowak, the British student whose treatment by police after a fatal stabbing has sparked nationwide outrage and a growing campaign for accountability.
The decision comes as a petition demanding criminal charges against the officers involved approaches 200,000 signatures. Campaigners are calling for potential prosecutions for manslaughter, criminal negligence, and dereliction of duty, as well as the publication of the full report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which is investigating the incident.
Nowak, an 18-year-old accountancy student, was stabbed five times in Southampton on December 3, 2025. Body-camera footage released after the murder trial showed officers handcuffing the teenager as he lay dying despite repeatedly telling them he had been stabbed and could not breathe.
Instead, officers accepted the account of his attacker, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, who falsely claimed that Nowak had assaulted him and subjected him to racist abuse. Digwa was convicted of murder last week and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years.
At a hearing in Winchester on Thursday, Hampshire coroner Jason Pegg said the key question for the inquest would be whether “any act or omission by a police officer” or delays in treatment caused or contributed to Nowak’s death. The inquest is currently scheduled for September 2027.
The case has become one of Britain’s most controversial criminal justice scandals. Lasts week, more than 1,000 protesters gathered outside Southampton Central Police Station following the release of the footage. Demonstrators observed a minute’s silence before marching through the city, with some chanting “I can’t breathe”—the words repeatedly spoken by Nowak in his final moments.
The footage has also fuelled accusations of “two-tier policing.” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage argued that officers appeared to treat allegations of racism more seriously than the stabbing itself.
The controversy has prompted the National Police Chiefs’ Council to review its anti-racism guidance, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government has rejected claims of institutional bias.
One of the officers involved has since resigned, while three others remain in service and are currently being treated as witnesses rather than suspects by the IOPC.
Although the sentencing judge stated that expert medical evidence suggested Nowak’s injuries were unsurvivable, the forthcoming inquest is expected to examine whether police actions at the scene were appropriate and whether any failures occurred in the response to the dying teenager.
Nick Hallett is an assistant news editor for The European Conservative. He has previously worked as a journalist for Breitbart and as the online editor for The Catholic Herald.
