In an interview with ITV News’ UK Editor Paul Brand, Henry Nowak’s family share memories of a much-loved son and brother whose life was cut tragically short
Henry Nowak’s family has spoken for the first time about the moment they learned the 18-year-old student had been murdered.
“We got that dreaded knock on the door at one o’clock in the morning,” Henry’s mother, Lucy Ross, recounts.
“The dog started barking. Olivia shouts at me, ‘Mum, there’s police at the door.’”
“They said to me, ‘Do you have a son called Henry?… There’s been an altercation. And unfortunately, your son has passed away’.”
“No words, no words can explain that feeling,” Lucy tells me, breaking down in tears.
Over the past year, the Nowak family has been privately grappling with a loss that has received huge public attention.
Now, his mother and sister, and his father and stepmother have spoken to me for a special ITV Tonight documentary, ‘Dear Henry: Our Fight for Justice’.
Henry as a baby.
Credit: Family handout
Over the course of three months, the family has allowed me into their lives to tell me about their grief, but also their anger at the way they and Henry have been treated.
It is the first time they have been able to talk about the real Henry – the boy, barely a man, who most of the world never got to know.
“All we did was laugh together,” Henry’s older sister, Olivia Nowak, says as she takes me inside Henry’s bedroom, where they would regularly film TikTok videos together.
“We would do funny dances, or we’d sing in the car together to our playlist… He was just hilarious. He would annoy me, but he was protective. He was the best brother,” she says.
“He was, he still is, my best friend.”
Olivia picks up some T-shirts that she keeps on his bed and puts them to her face.
She tells me they still smell of Henry and provide her with some comfort.
Henry with his sister Olivia when they were children.
Credit: Family handout
But his mother Lucy is dealing with her grief differently.
“I can’t go in there,” she tells me.
Henry’s bedroom contains too many triggering memories for her.
Coats hang over the door so Lucy doesn’t have to look at them as she passes on the landing.
But memories of Henry in his younger years do at least raise a smile with all the family.
“He was just such a good baby. He ate, slept, played. He never cried, only when he was hungry,” she tells me, recounting how his love of playing football began in his early years.
“He was a really happy child,” his father, Mark Nowak, also recalls. “Oh, he was full of fun.
He liked to try new adventures, going on the biggest rides or jumping off into pools or slides.”
Following Mark and Lucy’s divorce, Henry’s stepmother, Katie Nowak, describes it as “love at first sight” when she was introduced to five-year-old Henry.
“We just clicked straight away,” Katie says.
“He was always mucking around. He laughed at his own jokes way too often,” she remembers fondly.
When Mark and Katie went on to have two more children, they idolised their older brother.
The last photo the family took of Henry was him carrying his younger sister to the car after a trip to the pantomime.
“He was just the sweetest person,” Katie says.
Henry carrying his younger sister in the last picture that was taken of him.
Credit: Family handout
Just days later, in December last year, Henry was murdered in Southampton, where he had been studying at university.
Following a night out with friends from his football team, Henry was stabbed five times as he was walking home.
The killer, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, subsequently lied to police that he had been racially attacked by Henry.
Henry’s agony was captured on police body-worn cameras, as officers initially overlooked his injuries as they arrived at the scene.
As Henry pleaded that he had been stabbed and could not breathe, officers handcuffed and arrested him while he lay on the floor. Henry died shortly afterwards.
It would take officers another 24 hours to identify his body and tell Henry’s family that he had died.
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“I jumped out of bed and I saw the police car on our driveway,” Katie recalls. “I shouted to Mark, ‘It’s the police.’
I just had a feeling something had happened to Henry.
“One of the police officers was holding his hat in his hand, and I just knew straight away that something horrific had happened.”
The police didn’t get as far as the kitchen before Mark and Katie were desperately asking for answers.
“They said the worst thing a parent can ever hear,” Mark tells me.
Katie says that hearing the news was “everything you can imagine and worse” and remembers Mark falling to his knees.
“He let out a cry that I’ll never forget,” she tells me.
“It was just shock,” Mark says.
“I just remember saying ‘it’s Henry’ and breaking down in tears. It’s just unbelievable pain.”
Henry Nowak’s dad, Mark, and step-mother Katie.
Credit: ITV News
Officers also travelled to the home of Henry’s mother, Lucy, and sister Olivia, to deliver the news at the same time.
As soon as police told her what had happened, Olivia says she texted the family WhatsApp group to see if her dad and stepmother had heard yet.
“My dad called me, and I answered the phone,” Olivia recounts. “And I just remember this scream. It was awful.
“He screamed, ‘My boy, My boy’. And I heard my little brother in the background cry because he’d woken up from the noise and it was just horrific.”
Henry Nowak’s sister, Olivia, and his mother, Lucy, spoke to ITV Tonight for the first time.
Credit: ITV News
But in the year that followed, the family’s pain would reach even darker depths as they learnt the truth about Henry’s treatment by police, as captured by the bodycam footage.
“In the last year, our world has changed twice,” Katie tells me.
“The first time was the night that we were told that Henry had died. And the second time was when we watched that video.”
In the coming days, Henry’s family want to reveal the full extent of what they have been through, from the alleged police failures to finding themselves at the centre of global political outrage.
And tell the world why they feel they – and Henry – have been unbearably betrayed.