‘I was called a murderer and predator over Henry Nowak’s death but I wasn’t even there’

‘I know it’s cliche, but it’s so important to not believe everything you read,’ ex-officer Christi Hill said.

The 33-year-old is speaking to Metro in a safe house at an undisclosed location, after she was wrongly identified as the officer who handcuffed Henry Nowak as he lay dying.

This is despite the fact she left not only Hampshire Constabulary but herpolicing career in 2024.

Henry, 18, was stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, who lied at the scene and said the student had racially abused him.

This was not true, but harrowing body cam footage shows the officers ignoring Henry’s dying pleas to believe he had been stabbed.

In a rage-filled hunt to find the officers who dismissed and handcuffed Henry, social media came across an image of Christi with a colleague from a national police bravery award media release.

‘Grok picked up the information and spread it everywhere’

For reasons unknown, accounts latched onto the image and insisted they were the two officers involved, and Grok, X’s AI chatbot, took this information as gospel.

It named the pair in its replies and posts, spiralling the misinformation beyond anyone’s control.

Christi said: ‘I was called a murderer and a predator. People said I shouldn’t be alive. I was terrified.’

Following Vickrum’s life sentence, protesters including Tommy Robinson took to the streets of Southampton, injuring 11 officers after bricks and chairs were thrown at them.

Police made the decision to take Christi and the other wrongly named colleague to safe houses for their own protection. But there has been no official announcement from police, confirming they were not the officers involved.

‘It was up to me to set the record straight’

Christi says she has been left with no option but to set the record straight herself, writing on a LinkedIn post that she felt ‘deeply unsettled’ to have her name attached to ‘such a high-profile and sensitive matter’.

She said: ‘It’s all been down to me to set the record straight. It’s unsettling it ever got this far.

‘And it’s frustrating because the police say openness, honesty and transparency is fundamental to their work.

‘And there’s no way Grok will ever be held accountable, because it learns from information just put out there.’

Christi, who founded a security app Swipe Secure, said she is now worried about the reputation she has been left with.

She revealed the force told her yesterday evening they will make a decision on what to say by the end of today.

But Christi agreed ‘they had missed the boat’, as ‘the tide is beginning to turn’.

She added: ‘If they had revealed the evidence that it simply wasn’t me from the start, I wouldn’t be here now,’ she said.

‘It’s taken the attention away from Henry’s family’

‘And it’s taken the attention away from Henry’s parents and what they are going through.’

Henry’s dad Mark has spoken out, saying he does not want his son’s murder to ‘create further hatred, division or tension’.

Comparing the treatment of his son with that of his killer, Mark told journalists: ‘His murderer, however, was afforded decency. He was believed. He was not handcuffed when arrested. He was not handcuffed when transported to the police station. As far as we understand, he was never handcuffed at all.

‘And, as Vickrum Digwa himself told the court, while under arrest for Henry’s murder, police even took him to the kitchen so he could choose his food.

‘The contrast is unbearable.’

Metro has contacted Hampshire Police for comment, but the force previously said: ‘The murder of Henry Nowak was a tragedy, our thoughts are with his family and friends.

‘The officers’ actions that night are subject to rigorous independent scrutiny and we must let that process run its course.

‘The Police Federation condemns in the strongest possible terms the calls for mob or vigilante justice against officers we have seen in recent days.

‘That has included police officers being wrongly identified as being involved in the incident and personal details such as home address being widely published.’

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