A wave of misinformation has erupted online following the sentencing of 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, who was jailed for life on 1 June for killing 18-year-old university student Henry Nowak.
Nowak's killing, which happened in the southern English coastal city of Southampton in December 2025, has sparked an intense public debate about policing and knife laws in the United Kingdom.
It has also been seized by politicians across Europe, with one Polish far-right politician claiming that the case symbolises "Europe condemning itself to death".
The case has opened the door to a dangerous wave of misinformation with real-life human consequences: police officers who were not involved in the case have suffered death threats and been forced into hiding, amid public outrage about how the police who did arrive on the murder scene handled the matter.
On the night of the killing, Digwa, who is Sikh, falsely claimed that he had been the victim of a racist assault when he called the police to the crime scene after stabbing Nowak four times.
