Three more people have been charged with violent disorder following the protests that erupted in Southampton earlier this week, GB News reported. Hampshire Police confirmed the new charges in a statement on Friday morning, adding to the two arrests that were made on the day of the unrest. The disorder left a heavy toll on the police response, with 11 officers and one police dog injured as the protests turned violent.
According to the force, those now facing charges are Connor Bishop, 24, of Oxford Street in Southampton, Rhys Robinson, 21, from Havant, and Noah Etherington, 18, who is also from Havant. All three have been charged with violent disorder and are due to appear before Southampton magistrates on Friday morning, in the first court hearings to flow from the trouble that gripped the city earlier in the week.
The protests had erupted off the back of the release of body cam footage connected to the death of Henry Novak. The footage was described as deeply shocking, capturing Novak as he was heard saying that he could not breathe and that he had been stabbed in the moments before he died. Its release prompted a wave of anger that quickly spilled onto the streets of the city.
That anger boiled over on Tuesday night, when the demonstrations took a violent turn. Witnesses and reporters on the scene described bins being set on fire and pushed towards police lines, bottles being thrown at officers, and streets filling with people. The disorder also saw residents' cars being smashed, leaving a trail of damage across the affected neighbourhoods of Southampton.
Despite the violence that broke out, much of the crowd had come together for peaceful reasons. More than 1,000 people gathered on the streets, with many of them there simply to stand up for Henry Novak and his family and to call for justice. The scale of the turnout underlined the strength of feeling in the community, even as a smaller element turned the gathering into a confrontation with police.
At the centre of the unrest is the killing of Henry Novak, who was murdered after being stabbed multiple times, with a fatal wound to the chest. A man was found guilty of his murder, but it was the later release of the body cam footage showing Novak's final moments that reignited public outrage and drew so many onto the streets of Southampton in the days that followed.
Alongside the criminal cases now reaching the courts, wider scrutiny of that night continues. An independent investigation into the conduct of police is ongoing, and an inquest into Henry Novak's death is expected to begin later in the year, with a coroner set to consider whether any act or omission by a police officer caused or contributed to his death. The three charged men, meanwhile, face their first appearance before magistrates.