The mother of the man who stabbed student Henry Nowak to death in a frenzied attack, then falsely blamed the victim for racism and triggered riots, was jailed for three years on Friday after she removed the murder weapon from the scene and hid it among a collection of ceremonial blades in her son's bedroom.
Kiran Kaur, 53, was found guilty in May of assisting an offender after taking the 21cm knife used by her son, Vickrum Digwa, to kill the 18-year-old finance student on 3 December 2025. Digwa, 23, was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years on 1 June after the jury rejected his claim that Nowak had racially abused him, a lie that led police to handcuff the dying student and sparked violent protests in Southampton.
“Kiran Kaur jailed for three years for removing the knife used by her son Vickrum Digwa to murder student Henry Nowak.”
Sentencing Kaur at Southampton Crown Court, Judge William Mousley KC said: "A responsible parent would have challenged their son over their actions and encouraged them to do the right thing. 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."
The judge added that Kaur's motive was "mistakenly, to protect your son rather than for any personal gain", but that "the seriousness of your offending requires you to be punished and others who might find themselves in a similar situation to be deterred".
Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC described Kaur's role as "crucial" in removing the weapon while police were arriving at the scene. "The absence of a weapon at the scene caused by her actions hampered the police attending who were, as your Honour will recall, confronted with a wall of lies," he told the court. "That weapon led to Henry dying terrified, alone and disbelieved. Her actions contributed to this."
But defence barrister Mark Watson called the act a "spontaneous" panic reaction after Kaur received a phone call that her son had been attacked. "The weapon was not destroyed, it was not cleaned, it was not broken up and hidden," he said, noting it was still in its sheath. The knife was only recovered by police a week after the murder, following CCTV examination.
Digwa had stabbed Nowak five times, with a fatal 8cm-deep wound to the chest, as the victim tried to flee home from a night out. Nowak died about 57 minutes after being handcuffed by officers who believed Digwa's lies.
In a statement released after Kaur's sentencing, Nowak's family said they "remain incredibly disappointed" and vowed to continue their campaign for justice. "We will never give up in our campaign for justice for Henry," they said. "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."
Kelly Newman of the Crown Prosecution Service added: "Those who seek to help murderers evade justice should be in no doubt that they too will be held accountable for their actions."
