Sikh Blade Trial: Student’s Death Tests Claims of Self-Defence and Religious Right

A Sikh man accused of fatally stabbing 18-year-old university student Henry Nowak in Southampton has denied an alternative charge of manslaughter.

Vickrum Digwa, 23, is already on trial at Southampton Crown Court accused of murder and carrying a knife in public. He denies both charges.

Judge William Mousley KC told jurors that Digwa must also face a manslaughter charge as an alternative to murder. Digwa denies that charge as well.

Nowak, from Chafford Hundred in Essex, was killed on 3 December while walking back from a night out in Southampton. He was a first-year University of Southampton student.

The court previously heard that Digwa was carrying a 21 cm blade in a sheath around his neck in Belmont Road.

Prosecutors say the kirpan, a religious knife, caused five stab wounds to Nowak, including two wounds to the backs of his legs and a fatal wound to his chest.

Explaining the manslaughter charge to the jury, the judge said a person may not be guilty of murder if they did not deliberately cause the fatal injury or did not intend to kill or cause serious harm.

Manslaughter, he said, can apply if a person deliberately and unlawfully caused another person’s death by an act that a reasonable person would realise could cause harm, and if that act was not reasonable self-defence.

The judge also addressed a question from jurors about whether carrying a knife of that size was illegal.

He said there would have to be a good reason, such as religious reasons, and added: “It is for Vickrum Digwa to prove that it is more likely than not that he had a good reason for having it.”

Digwa told the court that Nowak was drunk, racially abused him, punched him and knocked off his turban.

He said he stabbed Nowak in the backs of the legs in self-defence after Nowak threatened him and grabbed him by the hair. Digwa said he did not realise at the time that he had caused the fatal wound to Nowak’s chest.

Prosecutors have challenged that account. The court heard earlier that Nowak’s phone captured part of the encounter. The prosecution said Digwa later claimed he had been racially abused and attacked, but did not seek help for the wounded student.

Police initially handcuffed Nowak before realising he had been fatally injured. He collapsed a short time later and died in the street.

Digwa’s mother, 53-year-old Kiran Kaur, is also on trial. She denies assisting an offender by removing a weapon from the scene.

The trial continues.