The Home Secretary ordered an independent review of the murder of Henry Nowak.

Monday's review is not a new trial and not a new sentence. Digwa's murder conviction and the life term are already the judgment. The Home Office said the first phase is due in March 2027 and the second waits on the police watchdog. BBC News said the review is due in five months. The Daily Mail and the Home Office terms also do not use the same court, or the same law officer, for the separate fight over the length of that minimum term.

BBC News, the Home Office, and the Daily Mail reported Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered an independent review of the murder of Henry Nowak and appointed Alex Chalk KC to lead it. The Home Office called him the former Lord Chancellor. BBC News called him a former Justice Secretary. The Daily Mail reported he served as Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary from 2023 until the general election in July 2024. The Home Office said the review has two phases. Phase one will look at what was known about Vickrum Digwa in the five years before the attack, across police, health services, local authorities, educational institutions, and faith organisations, including concerns about weapons and violent, threatening, and erratic behaviour, and at whether chances to prevent the killing were missed. It will also look at how the Nowak family was treated afterward by police, the Crown Prosecution Service, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, and HM Prison and Probation Service. The Home Office said Chalk is to report on phase one by March 2027. The Daily Mail reported the same March date and called the review rapid. BBC News said the review is due to report in five months. Phase two, the Home Office and BBC News reported, comes after the Independent Office for Police Conduct finishes its investigation of the officers at the scene, and will then look at the watchdog and, if necessary, the police. Mahmood said, "This review will leave no stone unturned in seeking those answers." Chalk said, "My review will follow the evidence without fear or favour."

The conviction is already in. BBC News reported Nowak, 18, was fatally stabbed in Southampton in December 2025 by Digwa, who falsely claimed he had been racially abused and had acted in self-defence, and that Digwa was jailed for life on June 1 with a minimum term of 21 years. The Daily Mail reported the weapon was an eight-inch ceremonial dagger, that the date was Dec. 3, and that he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life with a 21-year minimum in June. The Home Office terms of reference, published Monday, say Nowak died on Dec. 3, 2025, and that on May 28, 2026, Digwa was convicted of murder and received a life sentence with a minimum of 21 years. June 1, a June conviction and sentence, and May 28 are three ways of dating one judgment. The 21-year minimum is in all three. BBC News reported Nowak was from Chafford Hundred in Essex and was a first-year accountancy and finance student at the University of Southampton. The terms call him a Southampton University student. BBC News reported Digwa's brother called 999 claiming Vickrum had been attacked racially.

BBC News reported bodycam footage, released by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary with the family's permission, showed Nowak handcuffed and left dying on the ground after he told officers he was hurt. It reported a sentencing judge ruled he would not have survived his injuries however quickly he was treated. The Daily Mail reported he told officers he had been stabbed and could not breathe, and that one officer replied, "I don't think you have, mate." It reported prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC told Southampton Crown Court in June that Nowak died "alone, humiliated and handcuffed," and that Digwa's claim of racist abuse was a "wicked lie about a dying man." It reported Nowak's father, Mark, said Henry was pulled across the gravel, handcuffed, formally arrested for assault, and read his rights, that this was the last thing he heard, and that the treatment was "inhumane and degrading." The Daily Mail reported Mark Nowak said Digwa was not handcuffed when arrested or taken to the station. BBC News reported that after the footage came out there was violent disorder in Southampton, and that Mark Nowak called for a full investigation of the police response while also urging people not to use his son's death to "create further division, hatred or tension." The family said Monday's announcement was "a significant moment in our fight for justice," the Home Office reported, and that their experience of the criminal justice system had been "deeply disappointing."

Monday's order does not change the sentence. The Home Office terms say the Solicitor General has referred Digwa's sentence to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient, and that Digwa is appealing his sentence. The Daily Mail reported he will appeal the length of the minimum term at the High Court next week, and that Attorney General Ellie Reeves will ask for the term to be increased as unduly lenient. A Court of Appeal reference by the Solicitor General and a High Court hearing involving the Attorney General are not the same description. The terms say Digwa's mother, Kiran Kaur, was convicted on July 17, 2026, of assisting an offender and sentenced to three years. The Daily Mail reported she is 53, that the assistance was removing the knife from the scene, that she is also due to appeal next week, and that she is expected to be released in December after serving a third of the term, which the paper tied to about seven months on remand before sentence. The Daily Mail reported the terms say the review will look at the family's concerns about information sharing on that early release. The Home Office announcement itself does not set a release date. BBC News reported Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch welcomed the review and said there must be proper accountability for those who failed Henry and his family. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.