Henry Nowak’s killer has sentence extended by court of appeal

Developing story first seen 2 hours ago

The Guardian · 2 hours ago

The Court of Appeal has increased Vickrum Digwa’s minimum term for murdering 18-year-old Henry Nowak, ruling that the original sentence was unduly lenient. After an appeal by Attorney General Ellie Reeves, the court replaced the 21-year minimum with 25 years, less time already spent on remand.

Digwa, 23, stabbed Nowak repeatedly with a large dagger in Southampton in December last year, then filmed him as he lay dying and falsely claimed he had been racially abused. The court said the original sentence did not properly reflect the use of a weapon against an unarmed man, the treatment of the victim and efforts to obstruct justice. Digwa’s mother was jailed for three years for helping conceal the knife.

Sources: 2
Outlets: 2
Left · Centre · Right: 1 · 0 · 1

In short

Digwa’s minimum term was increased after an appeal.
The court set a 25-year minimum, minus 175 days on remand.
Judges cited the killing, filming and attempts to obstruct justice.

How this story developed

43 minutes ago The Court of Appeal increased Vickrum Digwa’s minimum prison term for murdering 18-year-old Henry Nowak, ruling that the original sentence was unduly lenient.
53 minutes ago The Court of Appeal has increased Vickrum Digwa’s minimum term for murdering 18-year-old Henry Nowak, ruling that the original sentence was unduly lenient.

Full account

The Court of Appeal has increased the minimum term Vickrum Digwa must serve for murdering 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Southampton. Digwa’s life sentence, originally set with a minimum term of 21 years, now carries an operative minimum of 24 years and 190 days, after the court found the original term unduly lenient. The ruling followed an appeal by Attorney General Ellie Reeves.

The judges said the first sentence did not sufficiently account for either the repeated use of a readily available dagger to kill an unarmed man or Digwa’s conduct after the stabbing. He filmed Nowak as he lay dying and falsely told police and emergency services that Nowak had racially abused him. Police initially arrested and handcuffed Nowak before discovering his fatal injuries. The false allegation and the handling of the incident later became a focus of public anger and unrest in Southampton.

The court set a new minimum term of 25 years, then deducted 175 days Digwa had spent on remand. In submissions for Reeves, Jonathan Polnay KC argued that the original sentence gave too little weight to aggravating factors, including the false accusation, efforts to obstruct justice and the involvement of Digwa’s mother in concealing evidence. He said the appeal did not challenge Sikhs’ lawful right to carry a kirpan for religious reasons; the concern was the use of a separate dagger in the killing. The court also referred to the deliberate cruelty and additional suffering after the attack.

Nowak’s family welcomed the increase as a step towards justice, while saying no sentence could restore their son or lessen their grief. They said they would continue seeking truth, accountability and change. Their statement also backed an independent review led by former lord chancellor Alex Chalk, announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, into the murder and whether there had been missed opportunities to intervene.

Where outlets differ

From the full account, which is AI-written from the sources:

Source 1 centres on the legal reasoning, the attorney general’s appeal and the distinction between the kirpan and the separate dagger. Source 2 gives greater prominence to the family’s response, the announced independent review and the public unrest following the release of body-worn camera footage.

The reports describe the revised term differently in shorthand: Source 1 gives the operative figure after credit for 175 days on remand, while Source 2 refers to the new 25-year minimum before that deduction. Source 2 also dates the murder as 3 December and says the life sentence was imposed in March, whereas Source 1 says the killing occurred in December last year and does not specify the sentencing month.