\n<\/p>\n
Henry Nowak\u2019s killer has seen his sentence extended by the court of appeal after it ruled that his original sentence was \u201cunduly lenient\u201d.<\/p>\n
Vickrum Digwa\u2019s original sentence of life with a minimum term of 21 years was lengthened to a minimum of 24 years and 190 days after a successful appeal by the attorney general, Ellie Reeves.<\/p>\n
Digwa, 23, stabbed Nowak several times in an attack in Southampton in December last year.<\/p>\n
When police arrived at the murder scene, Digwa falsely claimed Nowak had racially abused him and knocked his turban off, causing officers to arrest and handcuff Nowak before they saw his fatal injuries.<\/p>\n
Digwa filmed his victim as he lay dying and lied to emergency services that Nowak, 18, had racially abused him.<\/p>\n
The incident led to riots in Southampton.<\/p>\n
Lady Chief Justice Carr said the original sentencing judge, William Mousley KC, had materially understated two distinct dimensions of Digwa\u2019s offending.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cFirst, the circumstances in which a large and immediately available dagger was used repeatedly with an intention to kill an unarmed man, and secondly, the deliberate cruelty, additional suffering, and obstruction [of justice] which followed the stabbing.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cA minimum term of 21 years did not adequately reflect the overall seriousness of the murder. It was not only lenient, but unduly so.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, we quash the minimum term of 21 years. We replace it with a minimum term of 25 years. From that term must be deducted the 175 days spent in custody on remand, producing an operative minimum term of 24 years and 190 days.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Henry Nowak was arrested and handcuffed by police before they saw his fatal injuries.<\/span> Photograph: Family Handout\/PA<\/p>\n In written submissions on behalf of Reeves, Jonathan Polnay KC said the sentence failed to take into account a series of \u201csignificant aggravating factors\u201d, including Digwa\u2019s \u201cfalse allegation of racism against the deceased\u201d and his \u201cabuse\u201d of the privilege afforded to Sikhs to carry a knife in a public place for religious reasons.<\/p>\n At Digwa\u2019s sentencing hearing, Mousley said that on the night of the murder, Digwa had a small knife hidden from view called a kirpan, which is a strict requirement for Sikhs to carry at all times.<\/p>\n Digwa also had a \u201clarge dagger in a sheath\u201d due to his membership of the Nihang, an order of Sikhs which has a tradition of holding a second knife.<\/p>\n Polnay told the court that the attempt to increase the sentence was \u201cnot about the lawful possession of a kirpan\u201d and the laws allowing Sikhs to carry blades. \u201cIt is about what followed.\u201d He said Digwa\u2019s use of the dagger was \u201con at least one level, analogous to an abuse of trust\u201d.<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cWhen a person who has the benefit of that accommodation uses the article protected by law for repeated lethal violence, that is an aggravating factor of particular weight.\u201d<\/p>\n Polnay also cited \u201cthe offender\u2019s sustained attempts to pervert the course of justice\u201d and \u201chis procurement of his mother\u2019s assistance in concealing evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n Digwa\u2019s mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, was jailed for three years for assisting an offender by taking the knife from where her son murdered Novak back to the family home.<\/p>\n Polnay said other aggravating factors included Digwa\u2019s \u201cdegradation of the dying victim by filming him, and his conduct in misleading responders\u201d.<\/p>\n His submission said: \u201cThe minimum term imposed failed adequately to reflect the combined weight of those features.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Kiran Kaur, 53, Vickrum Digwa\u2019s mother, was found guilty of assisting an offender by removing a weapon from the scene of the murder, and was jailed for three years. <\/span> Photograph: Hampshire police\/PA<\/p>\n In her ruling made alongside Mr Justice Nicklin and Mr Justice Wall, Carr said: \u201cA person who knowingly carries a large knife or other bladed article in public, even if lawfully, and then uses it to kill an unarmed man after only a brief altercation, is highly culpable. His culpability is much closer to that of a person who takes a weapon into the street for offensive use than to that of someone who kills without a weapon, or someone who picks up a weapon of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n On the false allegations of racism, Carr said: \u201cIt is unnecessary for us to determine whether the allegation of racial abuse was false, for even if that finding is left out of account, it does not affect our assessment of the appropriate minimum term.\u201d<\/p>\n Digwa watched proceedings from HMP Frankland in County Durham, wearing a dark suit, shirt and tie.<\/p>\n Members of Nowak\u2019s family attended the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, with one relative wiping their eyes as the ruling was handed down.<\/p>\n Imran Khan KC, for Digwa, said the sentence could be increased only in \u201cexceptional, rather than borderline cases, and directed to gross error by the sentencing judge\u201d. He asked: \u201cWhere is the gross error?\u201d<\/p>\n Challenging the length of the sentence, Khan said that while Digwa\u2019s lies to first responders \u201cunquestionably affected the dignity with which Mr Nowak was treated\u201d, his wounds were unsurvivable. \u201cThe false account therefore did not worsen the fatal injury or deprive Mr Nowak of the prospect of survival,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In response to Digwa\u2019s appeal, Carr said: \u201cHaving reached the conclusion that the proper minimum term would be at least 25 years, we refuse Digwa leave to appeal against his sentence. It is unarguable that it is manifestly excessive.\u201d<\/p>\n Reeves said: \u201cThe brutality and cruelty of this case horrified me, and I know that feeling is shared by the British public. I welcome the court of appeal\u2019s decision to increase the minimum term of Digwa\u2019s life sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Henry Nowak\u2019s killer has seen his sentence extended by the court of appeal after it ruled that his original sentence was \u201cunduly lenient\u201d. Vickrum Digwa\u2019s original sentence of life with a minimum term of 21 years was lengthened to a minimum of 24 years and 190 days after a successful appeal by the attorney general,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[713,160,11874,4385,976,25413,2865,14865],"class_list":{"0":"post-52585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-appeal","9":"tag-court","10":"tag-extended","11":"tag-henry","12":"tag-killer","13":"tag-nowaks","14":"tag-sentence","15":"tag-sentencing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}