Henry’s fateful night should have been a happy one, marking the end of his first term at university. Originally from Chafford Hundred, Essex, Henry – a lover of all sports – had joined the university’s football club. His final hours began at a house party, hosted by one of his new teammates to celebrate the end of their first semester. Up to 25 students attended the team social, including Robin Dyson, the club’s president.
20:30 While the rest of his team kicked off proceedings at around 8pm, Henry was ‘relatively late’, according to Robin.
Footage from the elevator in Henry’s student accommodation, Hampton Square, in the Portswood area of Southampton, showed him leaving with a bottle of wine at 8.30pm, smartly dressed in a white shirt, tie and quarter-zip jumper, and fixing his hair. It would be the last time he ever set foot in the building. He arrived at the party not long after.
The rest of the team had dressed similarly smartly and were watching football at the house as a ‘tradition’.
At the house party, Robin said Henry ‘seemed sober to me and didn’t slur his words as we talked about Arsenal’, though he was ‘known as a lightweight drinker’. Tests later showed Henry had only 65mg of alcohol in his blood – far below the 80mg drink-drive limit.
21:01 With the night still young, the young men left the house party. CCTV showed Henry entering Charlie’s Bargain Booze shop on Portswood Road, just a ten-minute walk from his student accommodation. As a group of around six of his friends waited outside, Henry joined another student already inside the shop. He was spotted showing a worker his ID before choosing to buy a canned drink.
There was a significant gap before Henry was caught again on CCTV. This period of time remains unaccounted for – but it is thought the football team continued drinking.
22:33 Henry arrived alone at The Hobbit, a fantasy-themed pub and popular student venue on Bevois Valley Road. He showed his ID to the two doormen and went inside before heading out into the beer garden to the rear of the pub. He looked around, presumably searching for his friends, before going to the toilet. Afterwards, he continued to look around the garden but, after briefly speaking with a group of young women, he left.
22:36 Having left the pub after just three minutes inside, Henry headed south towards a student bar called Jesters Nightclub – less than 200ft from The Hobbit.
23:00At this point, Vickrum Digwa was half a mile away, on Belmont Road, with his brother Gurpreet Digwa, 27, as he helped him complete food deliveries for Deliveroo in his car. Conveniently, this was just a stone’s throw from his family home in St Denys.
Digwa, 23, is a British Sikh who, in an eerie similarity to his eventual victim, also worked in accountancy for local firm HWB, with an article about his onboarding picturing him with a ceremonial knife similar to the eventual weapon used to kill Henry. A court later heard he had a fascination with antique Sikh weaponry, sleeping with an ‘arsenal of weapons’ in the bedroom he shared with his brother.
Last week, the Daily Mail revealed Digwa’s obsession was obvious for several years prior to this fateful night, with a video from 2023 showing him putting on a demonstration with ceremonial knives at a Sikh event. In the 30-second clip, Digwa performed a ‘Gatka’ with his older brother Gurpreet. A Gatka is a Sikh weapons demonstration and both Digwa and his brother were described as ‘teachers’ of Gatka. Sources in the local Sikh community said the pair were briefly Gatka teachers – but even they were wary of Digwa, who was previously ‘barred’ from a temple in Southampton over concerns about his behaviour.
23:06 The prosecution said Henry left to return home alone, less than three hours after his night started.
23:07 CCTV from The Hobbit showed Henry coming back past the pub as he both walked and jogged north on his way home.
As he made his way home through the Portswood area, Henry sent messages and videos to his friends on the social media app Snapchat.
Henry sent a message to one friend asking to pick him up – but ended up continuing alone, walking along Thomas Lewis Way before turning left onto Belmont Road, a quiet suburban street of mostly semi-detached Victorian homes.
He also asked if that friend could make him food because he was cooking fish.
Digwa went to his family home before returning to the car, which was parked on Belmont Road, which he later told the court he did to fetch some curried chips as part of the pair’s delivery rounds. Gurpreet was in the car throughout and did not witness the altercation.
A short distance away, Henry was walking along the street towards him. The two men encountered each other on the pavement outside number 70.
Henry had been recording himself on Snapchat on his mobile phone at the time. In the video, played to jurors and not released to the public, Henry was heard saying ‘hello car’ and singing to himself before yawning. He briefly stopped filming when his interaction with Digwa began.
Digwa later claimed that during the pause in filming, Henry deliberately bumped into him, before telling him he ‘could have moved a little more’ and saying: ‘Do you think you’re a bad man? I’m from Essex. You don’t know what people from Essex are on.’ ‘Bad man’ is slang for a ‘gangster’ or violent person.
All Sikhs are required to have a knife, or kirpan, with them at all times – but it is normally small and worn on a necklace under clothing.
In contrast, Digwa was part of an order called the Nihang, members of which openly display a second, larger, sheathed knife. Along with this bladed article, known as a shastar – the Punjabi word for weapon or knife, he was wearing the standard smaller kirpan around his neck and under clothing, as is typical for Sikhs. It was not this standard Sikh kirpan that was used to commit the murder – but the larger, more unusual shastar.
An image issued by the Crown Prosecution Service shows the eight-inch ceremonial dagger used by Digwa
Under Sikh practice, a kirpan is carried in a sheath and must be worn in a holster. Unsheathing it for aggressive reasons violates the Sikh code of conduct. It is legal to possess a kirpan for religious reasons in the UK but restrictions apply. Blades under 19in (50cm), however, are not covered by the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Offensive Weapons Act 2019.
Henry resumed filming on Snapchat, with the footage showing Digwa walking away from him. In the video, Digwa openly carried an eight-inch (21cm) sheathed ceremonial knife, worn around his torso, in accordance with his Nihang Sikh faith.
In what a judge later called a ‘tragic error of judgement’, Henry, spotting the knife, then ‘cheekily’ asked Digwa if he was a ‘bad man’. Henry was heard saying: ‘Innit bad man, what bad man. You’re a bad man, say you’re a bad man, go on.’
Digwa replied to confirm he was a ‘bad man’ and snatched Henry’s phone, which was when the video ended. Henry’s phone was later found in Digwa’s pocket.
Digwa later claimed in court he grabbed Henry’s phone in response to being filmed and that this was when Henry became aggressive, punching him, knocking off his turban and saying: ‘I’m going to f*** you up, I’m going to kill you.’
This was when the altercation between the two occurred. Seemingly enraged by Henry’s remarks, Digwa began a ‘physical struggle’ which saw the defenceless Henry stabbed in his chest and groin, with his jaw also cut. He was also stabbed twice in his upper leg ‘at some point’, a court later heard.
Digwa later said in court he ‘did not mean to stab Nowak in the chest when he pushed him away’.
Henry remained conscious and tried to run away. Witnesses heard a man, believed to be the student, saying: ‘I’m going to die.’ Still in the car, Gurpreet did not witness what happened.
23:22 Digwa used his own mobile phone to film his victim attempting to escape by climbing onto a commercial rubbish bin and over a fence, while Digwa taunted: ‘You’re not going to get away with this big man.’
Sentencing Digwa, Judge William Mousley KC said: ‘You continued to make films of Henry suffering, ignoring much of his desperation at having been stabbed. You told him that had not happened, no doubt to convince others who were nearby.’ These clips have not been released.
Henry managed to land on top of a car parked in front of number 68, on the other side of the fence he jumped over. Digwa went on to take close-up photos of the incapacitated Henry lying on the ground. In footage from a home security camera, Henry was heard saying ‘I am dying’, with Digwa replying, ‘you’re not dying bro’.
Ten minutes later, Henry said ‘you stabbed me’, with Digwa responding, ‘no, I didn’t’, and, ‘you were recording me thinking you’re sick’, which is slang for ‘tough’.
In that ten-minute period, Digwa did not call an ambulance – but did film Henry for a full five minutes. This clip was not played in court for being ‘too disturbing to be shown’. The court heard the attack was not witnessed but neighbours heard Henry say he had been stabbed and was dying.
Digwa, after attacking Henry, was joined by his brother Gurpreet who called their father, Moga Singh, to come to the scene from their nearby family home in the St Denys area.
Digwa told Gurpreet he had been a victim of racial abuse by Henry, and Gurpreet, who did not see the attack himself, called the police minutes later to allege a racist attack. Gurpreet said: ‘We’ve just got attacked racially by some white person. He’s physically attacked my brother, we’re Sikhs, we wear a turban and he’s just attacked my brother. We’re restraining him right now because he’s just attacked my brother and took my brother’s turban off. He also, he’s verbally, he’s verbally attacked my brother racially. I’m not having this as a regular occurrence, I live here, I’m not having this a regular occurrence. He ain’t fighting people, he’s racially attacking people, that’s what he’s doing. Nah, he sees some brown people, that’s what it was.’
Digwa interrupted the call and lied to the operator, claiming Henry called him a ‘P***’. It was not mentioned that Henry had been stabbed or that an ambulance was needed.
Digwa later told the court Henry, who he described as drunk, had racially abused him before punching him and knocking his turban off. In the footage he took after stabbing Henry, Digwa’s hair was in a tight bun. By the time police arrived, his hair was seen to be loose and hanging over his face, which the prosecution suggested he did to ‘corroborate’ his story.
23:23 Digwa’s father and mother Kiran Kaur arrived at the scene and a video filmed by Gurpreet caught his brother asking Kaur in Punjabi to dispose of the murder weapon. She took the knife and fled the scene. This footage has not been released.
The knife was later found at the family home, among a huge collection of bladed weaponry Digwa had been amassing since childhood – and Kaur was later found guilty of assisting an offender. She will be sentenced at a later date.
23:37 The police arrived at the scene at 11.37pm, where they found Henry on the ground surrounded by Digwa, his brother and their parents – his mother had by now returned to the scene.
Henry had been left bleeding profusely, without medical attention, for more than 15 minutes.
Bodyworn footage showed Digwa’s father Moga attempting to keep Henry upright as the student shouted hoarsely: ‘I’ve been stabbed, I can’t breathe, call an ambulance.’
Police asked Digwa for his account of events. Officers appeared to believe his false claims of assault and racial abuse – as when Henry said again, while lying on his side, that he had been stabbed, an officer said dismissively: ‘I don’t think you have, mate.’
A minute later, he was handcuffed and told he was being arrested on suspicion of assault. It was then he uttered his final words – ‘Please brother, I can’t breathe’ – before losing consciousness.
