Henry Nowak was 18, and at the end of his first term at Southampton University, when he was murdered. Around 11:30 p.m. on 3 December last year, Henry was walking back from a night out with his university football team. He hadn’t drunk heavily – during the trial we heard that he was below the drink driving limit. On the way home Henry encountered Vickrum Digwa, the 23-year-old Sikh man who would murder him.
Given the seriousness with which our police take racism, of course their response to this was to handcuff Henry
Digwa was carrying two blades, an eight-inch ‘shastar’ openly displayed, and a smaller ‘kirpan’ around his neck and under clothing. During the trial we heard that Digwa had ‘been training with weapons since the age of 12’ and used ‘loving terms’ when speaking about the murder weapon. Henry was stabbed five times by Digwa, including twice on the back of his legs, once in the face and a blow to the chest which killed him.
This wasn’t the end of Vickrum Digwa’s evil that day. Shortly after the attack, Digwa’s father, brother and mother arrived at the scene. He gave the murder weapon to his mother Kiran Kaur and she took it away to the family home. Kaur has been found guilty of assisting an offender by removing the weapon from the scene. Digwa went further in his efforts to evade justice. He lied during the 999 call. When the police arrived he lied to them, claiming to have been the victim of a racist attack and saying that he had not stabbed Henry.
