The Court of Appeal has increased the minimum prison term for the individual convicted of killing 18-year-old student Henry Nowak. Originally sentenced to a 21-year minimum term, the offender, Vickrum Digwa, must now serve at least 25 years in prison following a successful challenge by the Attorney General, who argued the initial punishment was unduly lenient. According to to put it pithily, the Attorney General, 21 years was too little.
Digwa, who appeared via video link from HMP Frankland, was convicted for the December 3, 2025, incident on Belmont Road in Southampton. During the hearing, the Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr, presiding alongside Mr Justice Nicklin and Mr Justice Wall, quashed the original sentence. The court found that the previous term failed to sufficiently reflect the gravity of the crime, which involved the use of a large dagger.
Key Case Details
- Offender: Vickrum Digwa
- Victim: Henry Nowak (18)
- Original minimum term: 21 years
- New minimum term: 25 years
- Time to serve before parole: 24 years and 190 days (accounting for time spent on remand)
- Incident date: 3 December 2025
The judges determined that while the trial judge was initially entitled to consider a 15-year starting point—finding that Digwa did not intentionally bring the weapon to the scene to commit an offense—a substantial increase was necessary. Defending, argued the trial judge had counted overlapping aggravating factors more than once, imran Khan KC.
The Lady Chief Justice emphasized that the subsequent lethal use of the large kirpan, a religious blade permitted for baptized Sikhs, warranted a harsher response. According to but she, A “very significant uplift” was needed because of the use of the large kirpan. And the law allows it to be carried in public for religious reasons, a kirpan is a religious knife which baptised Sikhs are expected to carry at all times. But was also carrying a larger one on a belt, in keeping with an order of Sikhs known as the Nihang, digwa wore a small kirpan around his neck.
She noted that while the initial possession might have been lawful, it did not diminish the severity of the act, which involved intentional cruelty and subsequent obstruction.
During the legal proceedings, Digwa unsuccessfully attempted to challenge his sentence as being manifestly excessive. He had previously claimed to police that Nowak had attacked and racially abused him, a justification that the trial judge explicitly rejected as a fabrication during the June proceedings at Southampton Crown Court. Then 22, he was jailed for life at Southampton Crown Court in June.
The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves, expressed her stance on the ruling, stating that the brutality of the case had horrified her and resonated with the public. She expressed hope that the adjusted sentence would provide a measure of justice for the victim’s family. Jonathan Polnay KC, representing the Attorney General, had argued that Digwa’s actions were akin to an abuse of trust, as he utilized a religious exemption to carry a weapon that was later used in a fatal assault.
In response to the outcome, the Nowak family described their ongoing struggle as a life sentence of grief. While they welcomed the court’s decision as a step toward justice, they maintained that no duration of imprisonment could replace their son. They indicated their intention to support an independent rapid review of the matter being conducted by Alex Chalk.
Additional legal actions related to the case include
- Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, who was sentenced to three years in July for assisting an offender by removing the weapon from the scene. She ultimately abandoned her own appeal against that sentence.
- A pending appeal from Digwa challenging his murder conviction, which remains to be decided separately.
- No reduction in our suffering and no prospect of ever getting our son back, they continued: “We have been given a life sentence of grief. There is no appeal for us.
- My thoughts remain with Henry’s family and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time.
- And I hope this outcome goes some way towards bringing them the justice they deserve, no sentence can ever fill the void left by his loss.
