The family of murdered 18-year-old Henry Nowak have released a statement after Kiran Kaur, the mother of his killer, was jailed for three years for assisting an offender. Kaur, 53, was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court on Friday after removing the knife her son Vickrum Digwa had used to fatally stab Nowak in December.
Digwa was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years in June, having been convicted of murdering Nowak and carrying a knife in public. He is now seeking to appeal against his conviction. Kaur, of St Denys Road, Southampton, was found guilty of assisting an offender in May, having been convicted by the same jurors who found her son guilty of murder.
What happened on the night of the attack
The court heard that Digwa stabbed Nowak, a finance student, five times in December last year, as Nowak made his way home from a night out with friends. Rather than calling an ambulance, Digwa filmed Nowak as he lay on the ground, before falsely claiming to police that he himself had been the victim of a racial attack. Kaur arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and removed the knife her son had used in the attack.
Judge criticises mother’s actions
Sentencing Kaur, Judge William Mousley KC condemned her decision to protect her son rather than encourage him to face the consequences of his actions. “A responsible parent would have challenged their son over their actions and encourage them to do the right thing,” he said. “Instead you took the knife home and put it with a larger collection of ceremonial and other weapons in your son’s bedroom. That would have helped to conceal what it had been used for.”
Family’s response to the sentencing
Following Kaur’s sentencing, Nowak’s family issued a statement expressing continued disappointment despite accepting the court’s decision. “While we accept today’s sentencing decision, nonetheless we remain incredibly disappointed,” the statement read. “We will never give up in our campaign for justice for Henry. Our focus is on making sure the ongoing investigations leave no stone unturned as we fight for the full truth about what happened last December, and we continue to urge the government to deliver the changes our wonderful son deserves.” Alongside the statement, the family released new photographs of Nowak as a young boy.
