Eleven officers and police dog injured in ‘terrifying’ violence in Southampton

Chief of Hampshire police says those claiming to protest over murder of Henry Nowak were ‘determined to spark fear and division’

Eleven officers and a police dog were injured during disorder by those claiming to protest over Henry Nowak’s murder, the chief of Hampshire police said, accusing those involved of being “determined to spark fear and division”.

A trail of destruction was left on the streets of Southampton after Tuesday night’s riot with car windows smashed and bricks strewn across roads.

The evening had begun relatively peacefully outside Southampton central police station but turned ugly when hundreds of people marched across the city to the neighbourhood where 18-year-old Nowak died and where his killer, Vickrum Digwa, lived.

Protesters hurled bricks, wheelie bins, bottles and beer cans at police as officers in riot gear stopped them reaching Digwa’s family home.

The chief constable of Hampshire police, Alexis Boon, said on Wednesday that 11 officers and a police dog had been injured doing their job “to protect the communities that we serve”.

“What we, as a society, cannot accept is the violent scenes we saw in Southampton last night,” he said. “Some clearly arrived intent on causing disorder and trouble. We saw bottles thrown, makeshift weapons used, damage caused to the homes and vehicles of innocent residents and threats and violence directed towards our officers.

“While we are forced to deal with those determined to spark fear and division, our finite resources are taken away from those who need it most.”

Boon said experienced officers would remain on the streets to keep the community safe in the coming days. He promised to bring those involved in violence on Tuesday evening to justice and said there had been two arrests.

The Labour leader of Southampton city council, Sarah Bogle, said she believed a number of people had arrived in the city from elsewhere for Tuesday’s demonstration.

“They were pretty awful scenes last night and very unwelcome to see that level of disturbance in what is normally a very quiet neighbourhood,” she said.

“It’s very very distressing to see what’s happened and it’s such an awful tragedy and I really want to respect and support the principles of Henry Nowak’s family’s wishes to dial down the rhetoric, dial down the tensions, and keep the peace and keep people safe and to honour his memory.

“It’s a huge tragedy for him and his family and it’s awful when these tragedies are weaponised by people who should know better, whether it’s politicians or the far right. It really is unwelcome.”

Residents in the Portswood area said on Wednesday that they had been terrified as protesters gathered near their homes.

Sophie Martin, a near neighbour of the Digwa family, said both of their families’ cars were smashed up.

“It was absolutely terrifying,” she said. “Our two young boys were asleep. It is just an absolute destruction, and I just thought, what am I going to tell the kids, they’re three and six. It was absolutely petrifying. I know they weren’t targeting us but my other half has decided not to go to work today.

“There is glass absolutely everywhere. We are going to be massively out of pocket. Even when the rioting had stopped and we had taped up the cars we still couldn’t sleep because we were worried they would come back. A few people have said we should move out for a bit.”

John Savage, a Labour representative for the Portswood ward, described the violence as “absolutely outrageous”.

He said it had occurred against a backdrop of long-standing protests against a hotel in the area used to house asylum seekers.

“Most people are really upset by it,” he said. “They really care about what happened in the last minutes of a poor 18-year-old student’s life, but it doesn’t warrant the violent, disrupting, damaging behaviour we saw last night, we need to wait to find out what happened.”

Savage described Portswood as a progressive area with many students and university staff living there. He said he believed most of the demonstrators were from other parts of the city and elsewhere in the country.

“It’s absolutely outrageous,” he said. “These are people who have been bussed in from other places to cause mayhem in our city.”

The far-right activist Tommy Robinson was among those who addressed crowds outside the police station during the protest billed as Justice for Henry Nowak.

People chanted: “Racist police, off our streets” and “shame on you”. They held union flags and homemade signs with slogans such as “Henry’s blood is on your hands”, “save our kids” and “prison 4 police on scene”.

Digwa, 23, stabbed Nowak, a student at the University of Southampton, five times. Police arrested and handcuffed Nowak after Digwa claimed he had racially abused and assaulted him.

After Digwa was jailed, Nowak’s father, Mark Nowak, condemned the “inhumane and degrading” treatment of his son by police, but said: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We want his story to help make our streets safer for everyone.”