On St Denys Road in Southampton, Sophie Martin clears a stray brick away from her driveway. On Tuesday night, as unrest gripped her suburb, that brick was thrown through the rear windows of both of her family’s cars, parked outside her home as her children slept inside.
She and her family are fashioning plastic coverings over the shattered windows, having cleared the glass and debris from the back seats that house her children’s car seats. It was outside her home of 10 years, in the Portswood neighbourhood, where violent disorder erupted after an outcry about the police’s response to the murder of student Henry Nowak.
Video from the night Mr Nowak was stabbed fatally by Vickrum Digwa shows that police handcuffed the 18-year-old as he lay on the ground, despite his repeated pleas that he could not breathe, after his killer falsely claimed he had been the victim of a racist attack. He died shortly after.
In footage recorded by a body-worn camera of the incident in this part of Southampton last December, Mr Nowak can be heard repeatedly saying “I’ve been stabbed”, to which an officer replies: “Don’t think you have, mate.”
On Monday, Digwa was given a life sentence with a minimum of 21 years in prison for stabbing Mr Nowak with a ceremonial knife with a 21cm blade.
Hundreds gathered outside Southampton Central Police Station for a demonstration led by the far-right agitator Tommy Robinson on Tuesday, before rioting broke out when a large group walked to Portswood. Demonstrators chanted “Henry, Henry” as the line of police was pelted with bricks and other missiles. Chairs, cans, bins and flares were thrown at police in riot gear, eventually forcing officers and three police vans back from the line they had been holding.
“Around half seven or half eight, it started getting a bit rowdy,” Ms Martin tells The Independent. “Then there was a riot – what I would call a riot. The police were literally right in our driveway. As you can see, our cars have been smashed in, and our kids were asleep upstairs. It was really scary.”
Eleven officers and a police dog were injured as missiles were thrown in this suburb of the city, home to a mix of families and students. Two people were arrested for assaulting police and possession of a weapon, and Hampshire Police warned the number would increase as investigations continue into the disorder.
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Ms Martin says she was “terrified” as she witnessed the chaos outside her front door and feared for the safety of her children. “They pushed a bin that was on fire through the police line. That was really scary. A massive brick came through my back car window, so there’s glass all over my car seats, my kids’ car seats and their bikes. Bricks, bottles, everything.”
“It was terrifying, actually. It was all the noise – I think it was [items] hitting the police shields. We were just sitting in bed thinking, ‘Oh God, when is it going to come through the lounge window?’ I just hope they don’t come back, really.”
Hampshire Constabulary chief constable Alexis Boon said on Wednesday that those involved in the disorder had been “determined to spark fear and division”.
Issuing a warning against further unrest, he said: “What we, as a society, cannot accept is the violent scenes we saw in Southampton last night. 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.
People in Portswood tell The Independent they came together to clean up early on Wednesday morning. One home’s garden fence was replaced after it was kicked down by rioters. Most signs of disorder have since gone – just a handful of beer bottles and discarded bricks remain – but several police officers and vehicles sporadically patrol the area, alert to any further signs of trouble.
A number of tributes to Mr Nowak stand on the wall outside Portswood police station, alongside a sign with a British flag that reads “safety is a right, not a privilege”.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer clashed with Nigel Farage as he said the Reform UK leader’s “appeal for rage” in response to the murder of Mr Nowak was “unforgivable”.
The student’s killer, 23-year-old Digwa, told police attending the scene of the stabbing that he had been the victim of a racist attack, and Mr Farage has since argued that the UK has “two-tier policing” and that officers are told to treat different ethnic groups differently. He had urged the public to respond with “pure cold rage”, and in the Commons on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer highlighted the words of Mr Nowak’s father, who said: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred, or tension.”
Sir Keir said: “They’re the words of a grieving father who’s lost his son. I think those words have resonated with people across the country. We must not allow this tragedy to be hijacked by anyone who seeks to divide us.”
That feeling is shared by Dylan Harwood, 23, in Portswood. He witnessed the rioting on Tuesday and says he now feels less safe in his home. Describing what he saw, Mr Harwood says: “We saw them all up on these roofs just up here and on these electrical boxes, throwing things from there, including bricks. You’ll see bricks torn from the walls there and electric scooters being thrown across at the riot police. It was a large group and quite a situation.”
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Mr Harwood says he understands the frustration held by the protesters but believes it has been expressed in completely the wrong way.
“I live four doors down from where it happened”, he says. “I understand the frustration and the sentiment. But to be taking it out in the way that it was taken out, I don’t think is right. I think there is potentially a group of people who have latched onto that and taken an opportunity.”
A group of 11 Sikh MPs said on Tuesday that they stand in solidarity with Mr Nowak’s family following the “senseless and tragic” incident. “This case was about the murder of Henry Nowak by Vickrum Digwa. It was not about religion or racism,” a collective statement says.
Among those MPs was Satvir Kaur, who represents the Southampton Test constituency into which this area falls. She tells The Independent that “tensions are high” in the city following the sentencing and the release of the police footage, but she is calling for people to come together in response to the crime rather than turn against one another.
“One person’s horrific actions and crime do not reflect an entire community,” she says. “In this country, we don’t penalise an entire community for one person’s actions. People who should be showing leadership clearly are not, because they’re using this to pit one community against another instead of using this moment to come together so we can work towards stopping crime on our streets.”
“Concerns are being raised, rightfully so, but in order to ensure that we learn the lessons of what happened, we need to stay calm, stay united and come together to ensure something like this never happens again,” Ms Kaur adds. “Violence, disruption and vandalism are never the solution.”
