The footage shown of 18-year-old Henry Nowak has had an impact on many of us for exactly this reason; that could have been any one of our sons walking home, and he deserved better than the brutal murder he endured. Worse still, in his final moments, his cries for help were not acted upon by police officers who should have been there to protect him, while his killer looked on.
There are moments which move us, and this was one of them. The courage and dignity shown by Henry’s family after the sentencing stands as a light in an otherwise dark story.
His father, Mark, described the injustice of their sons experience and called for action on knife crime. They also called for his memory to be respected and not used for division: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”
The responses from political leaders reflected that sentiment across the vast majority of the political spectrum. But not Reform, who, in defiance of the wishes of Henry’s family, called for “pure, cold rage”. They then used an image of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, misrepresenting her response earlier that morning to imply that she had said white lives did not matter. I have much to disagree with the Conservatives on, and politics can be a rough business as I know only too well, but this crosses a line. I see this for what it is.
Far-right thugs descended on Southampton last night. A response all too familiar. They do not own the hurt; no one feels it more deeply than Henry’s family. Nor do they own the moral response to the sickening attack or the questions surrounding the police response itself. Few could have failed to be moved, and even angered, by what happened. Henry did not deserve to be attacked, and he did not deserve to die without the dignity and compassion that an innocent young man was due.
We have to hold to account those in positions of power who are meant to protect us, and we have to root out, with far greater determination, the knife crime that continues to impact so many young people. It affects not only those who are killed or injured, but also the unrecorded fear many young people live with, knowing that risk exists within their own communities.
Henry’s family has called for knife crime to be treated as a national emergency, and I fully support those calls.
I have campaigned over a long period of time on knife crime and youth violence, and we know that in our own borough it remains a serious concern. It is a campaign for one simple reason: no parent should have to worry whether their child will make it home at night, and no young person should have their life cut short by such a senseless act.
This has to be seen for the crisis it is. I do not want a similar tragedy to strike our borough in the future, and I will keep fighting for action locally.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 