Quick summary: Vickrum Digwa, 23, is on trial at Southampton Crown Court accused of murdering Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old university student, in December 2025 following a street encounter in which Digwa claims he was racially abused and physically attacked. Digwa told the court he stabbed Nowak in self-defence after fearing the teenager would use his kirpan, a religious blade he carried as part of his Sikh faith, against him. The case raises serious questions about race, religion, knife carrying laws, and the limits of self defence, with forensic evidence and the nature of Nowak’s wounds forming the core of the prosecution’s challenge to that account.
A Sikh man accused of murdering an 18-year-old university student in Southampton has told a court he acted in self-defence after the teenager racially abused him, knocked his turban off and pulled his hair.
Vickrum Digwa, 23, denies murdering Henry Nowak, from Chafford Hundred in Essex, a first-year accountancy and finance student at the University of Southampton. The incident happened in Belmont Road, Southampton, on 3rd December 2025 as Nowak walked back from a night out. Digwa, of St Denys Road, Southampton, also denies carrying a knife in public. His mother Kiran Kaur, 53, denies assisting an offender by removing a weapon from the scene. The trial at Southampton Crown Court continues.
Giving evidence, Digwa said he was walking to fetch curried chips from a car when he encountered Nowak coming the other way on the pavement.
“To me it seemed like he was drunk. He barged into me. I thought he had done it deliberately.”
Nowak then turned around and said: “You could have moved up a little bit more.” Digwa said the victim used a racially offensive term before adding: “Do you think you’re a bad man? I’m from Essex. You don’t know what people from Essex are on.”
He said Nowak started to film him with a phone.
“I went to block the phone. I’ve grabbed it as well. This is when he punched me. He then pulled my turban, he pulled it off my head. As I’m bent over, he started saying: I’m going to [expletive] you up, I’m going to kill you. I felt like he was going to use my kirpan on me.”
Digwa told the jury: “I thought I had to do something because I was afraid that he was going to stab me with my own kirpan.”
The defendant said he was carrying a 21-centimetre blade in a sheath around his neck. He pulled out the kirpan during the altercation and stabbed Nowak. He told the court he did not mean to stab him in the chest.
“I’m sorry that it happened.”
Digwa said he felt threatened and recalled recent attacks on Sikhs that had been filmed. He added that his brother arrived, which led to emergency services being called. He did not tell police immediately that he had stabbed Nowak because he was scared.
He asked his mother to hold his kirpan while he picked up his religious items which had fallen. The prosecution says Kaur took the kirpan back to the family home, where it was later found.
“I felt abused, scared, it made me feel a bit better that I had my family there. My mind was fuzzy, everything went on so quickly, I couldn’t comprehend everything that was going on.”
He said the first time he was aware Nowak had been stabbed in the chest was during his first police interview. He found out Nowak had died while at the police station.
“I cried, I was scared. I didn’t mean to do it and I am sorry it happened.”
The court previously heard Nowak had been drinking below the drink drive limit. The attack resulted in five stab wounds or cuts, including two to the back of the legs and a chest wound. Nowak tried to escape by climbing over a fence. Police initially handcuffed the victim before discovering his injury.
Prosecutors have presented phone footage from Nowak showing the encounter. Forensic tests reportedly linked Nowak’s blood and fatty tissue, Digwa’s hair and Kaur’s DNA to the knife and sheath recovered from the family home. The prosecution argues the injuries and the pursuit of the victim undermine the self-defence claim.
The defence maintains Digwa carried the blade for religious purposes as a kirpan and reacted in the heat of the moment to what he believed was a racially motivated attack. The jury has also heard evidence including CCTV from Nowak’s halls of residence earlier that evening.
The case has raised questions about the initial police response and broader issues around knife carrying, self defence, and community tensions. Neighbours heard Nowak cry out that he had been stabbed.