Man jailed for at least 21 years for fatally stabbing student with Sikh ceremonial knife

Vickrum Digwa was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years for the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak.

Digwa was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court on Monday.

The 23-year-old man stabbed Mr Nowak to death with a Sikh ceremonial knife, called a kirpan, on December 3, 2025.

Moments before the stabbing, which left Mr Nowak with two stab wounds to the back of his legs and a fatal wound to his heart, his victim was filmed telling him: “I’m a bad man.”

Digwa has previously been convicted of carrying a bladed weapon in public places.

His mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, was found guilty of assisting an offender by removing the gun from the scene. He will be sentenced on July 17.

During his trial, Digwa claimed Mr Nowak, whom he described as drunk, racially abused him before punching him and knocking off his hijab.

She said she stabbed Mr. Nowak in the back of his legs in self-defense after Mr. Nowak threatened her and grabbed her by the hair.

He claimed that he did not realize at the time that he had caused the fatal stab wound in Mr Nowak’s chest.

However, the prosecution said Digwa told a “bad lie” when he told police officers who arrived at the scene that he was the victim of a racist attack.

He also “lied” to officers that he did not stab Mr. Nowak, despite the student’s calls for help while telling police he was injured.

This led to officers arresting Mr. Nowak and handcuffing him moments before he collapsed and lost consciousness. He later died despite the first aid efforts made to him.

The police later apologized for handcuffing Mr. Nowak.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has published a proposal on X to fund a special investigation against the police, while the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating the circumstances of the incident.

In court Monday, Henry Nowak’s father, Mark Nowak, broke down in tears as he read a victim impact statement to the court in which he described the family’s devastation over the loss of his “beautiful son.”

He said: “As a father it is my duty to protect my child and I failed to keep him safe, I wasn’t there when he needed me most, the thought of him bleeding to death on the road, scared, will haunt me forever.”

Henry’s mother, Lucy, described her son as “ambitious, determined and full of life”.

“He had his whole life ahead of him, and that future was brutally taken away from him,” he said.

“The impact of his loss has been devastating not only for me but for our entire family and everyone who knew him; we are learning to support each other through this unimaginable pain, but the pain is constant, our family will never be the same.”