A British judge has handed down a life sentence to the murderer of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, who police arrested even as he bled to death because they believed the knifeman’s accusations of racism and not the victim’s dying pleas.

Vickrum Digwa (23) was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 21 years by Judge William Mousley KC at Southampton Crown Court on Monday, with the judge saying in his sentencing remarks that killer Digwa had told many “wicked lies” and conspired to cover up the slaying, even while police were listening.

His victim, 18-year-old accountancy student Henry Nowak, was killed in the English city of Southampton in December 2025. During an encounter with Digwa on a dark street, he was stabbed several times with a Sikh ‘ceremonial knife’, including in the chest, face, groin, and the back of his legs. He attempted to escape, but members of Digwa’s family soon arrived and detained him. They called the police and reported Digwa’s story that Nowak had racially abused him, and the killer’s mother removed the murder weapon from the crime scene, stashing it at their family home.

Because Digwa’s version of events was treated as factual by police, the dying Nowak was arrested and handcuffed by police when they arrived on the scene, despite his protesting that he had been stabbed and was dying. A police officer told Nowak ‘I don’t think you have mate’ and it was only as Nowak was dying and went unconscious that police attempted CPR resuscitation on him, still apparently not having understood that he had received a critical chest wound.

Speaking in court on Monday, the judge told Digwa that he’d falsely claimed that Nowak had called him a “Paki” — a racial slur particular to the United Kingdom — but said the court had discovered that “Henry had said nothing racist. You are the only person to make that claim and it is completely at odds with his previous character… Your actions have stirred up racial tension… you abused the privilege extended to Sikhs to have a knife in a public place for religious reasons, dishonoured your religion and have now put others at risk of repercussions.”

Narrating the course of events leading up to the stabbing, Judge Mousley said, The Daily Echo reports:

Nowak was walking back to his university accommodation in Portswood, Southampton after an evening out… Henry was not drunk but may have been affected a little by the small amount of alcohol he had consumed over the previous few hours… he was alone and unarmed…

…You happened to be walking south along Belmont Road on the same pavement. It was to be a chance meeting. You were sober but were carrying a large Sikh dagger in a sheath attached to a belt over the outside of your clothing… You claimed he deliberately barged into you. I am sure that was one of the many lies you have told and repeated since it happened…

…You drew the dagger from its sheath and, as the jury was sure, you deliberately stabbed Henry in the chest with it… It passed upwards through soft tissue, between the two uppermost ribs, catching a lung and cutting an important vein behind the collar bone. The consequent bleeding flowed into his chest cavity.

After Nowak died, Digwa was taken to the police station but was not arrested. Police secretly recorded a conversation between Digwa and his brother where they plotted for the killer to escape justice. The judge said:

…[police] took the opportunity to record secretly any conversation between the two of you on the journey. Speaking in Punjabi, you agreed to pretend you had acted in self-defence even though you confessed to stabbing Henry three times, including once to the chest with the dagger. You knew you were guilty, demonstrated by your saying to Gurpreet that if there were any cameras in that part of Belmont Road, you would be unable to put forward self-defence. You decided, much as you had at the scene, to try to cover it up.

Speaking on the court steps after the sentencing, Henry Nowak’s father, Mark Nowak, said that while the family “hold Vickrum Digwa solely and 100 per cent responsible for the brutal murder of our son”, he should “not have died on the streets of Southampton in police custody. The way he was treated was inhumane and degrading”. The father said the last thing Nowak knew as he went unconscious was that he was being read his rights by the arresting officer.

On that undignified death while in handcuffs, Mr Nowak reflected: “He told [police] he had been stabbed four times. The response from one officer was ‘I don’t think you have mate’. The police say they had been misled. Instead of being treated like a dying victim, police arrested him for assault… Henry did not die with dignity. He did not die with the care he deserved. He lost consciousness before anyone believed him.”

On the other hand, Nowak said, murderer Digwa “was afforded decency” by police. He reflected: “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.”

Adding “our family should not have to fight for the truth anymore”, Mr Nowak called on the government to empower the investigation into the police’s behaviour with “the resources, authority and independence it needs”.

Police have previously apologised for handcuffing Nowak but also attempted to exculpate themselves for the teenager’s death, pointing to the testimony of a pathologist who said emergency treatment could not have prevented the bleeding from the internal wound.

Vickrum Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, has also been found guilty of assisting an offender over her removal of the murder weapon from the scene and hiding it. She is due to be sentenced on July 17th to allow the preparation of a pre-sentencing report.