UK police released footage of a dying student falsely accused of racially abusing a Sikh man who stabbed him, sparking anger Tuesday from far-right leader Nigel Farage over police diversity policies.
Farage called for an end to “anti-white prejudice” and recognition that “white lives matter”.
Body camera footage released by police showed mortally wounded university student Henry Nowak, 18, being handcuffed by police.
A judge on Monday jailed his killer, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, for at least 21 years for stabbing Nowak to death and lying to police that the student had racially insulted him.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the “awful, shocking case” on X, saying it was right the independent police complaints watchdog was investigating officers’ “response to (Nowak’s) senseless murder”.
Farage, whose anti-immigration Reform UK party made major gains in local elections across England last month, said the case showed the principle of everybody being “judged equally before the law” had been “trashed and thrown away”.
The footage captures police accepting the aggressor’s accusation that he and not Nowak was the victim during the incident in the southern city of Southampton in December.
Nowak is placed in handcuffs despite telling officers he has been stabbed and repeatedly adding “I can’t breathe”.
The officer can be heard asking Nowak: “You’ve been stabbed, whereabouts?” before adding: “Don’t think you have, mate.”
Farage praised the “dignity” of the teenager’s family after the sentencing hearing but added: “I suggest the rest of us respond to this with pure cold rage. This is wrong.”
Change was needed, he said, “if our society is not to be ripped apart” amid distrust between communities, and concern over policing and institutions.
“We need a change in culture, enough of anti-white prejudice,” he said, calling for “a promotion of the idea that white lives matter just as much as black lives”.
“An end to DEI (diversity equity and inclusion) and positive discrimination, but a country that treats everybody equally and fairly before the law,” he added.
American tech billionaire Elon Musk has posted on X an offer to fund a private prosecution against the police over its handling of the murder.
Digwa was due in court in Southampton again Tuesday with his brother, Gurpreet Digwa, and a third defendant, Moga Singh, on weapons offences.
Nowak was stabbed with a ceremonial knife with a 21cm (8 inch) blade.
Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, will be sentenced on July 17 for assisting an offender by taking the knife back to the family home
