The teenage victim of a stabbing died after officers arriving at the scene handcuffed him based on the alleged knifeman’s claim that he’d been the victim of a racist remark, a court has heard.
Anglo-Polish heritage university undergraduate Henry Nowak was stabbed to death on December 3rd after a night out with friends by 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, Southampton Crown Court heard on Thursday.
Digwa stands accused of murder and of carrying a knife in a public place while his mother, 53-year-old Kiran Kaur, is accused of assisting an offender.
The court heard that while Nowak had been drinking that evening while out socialising with friends from his football team in Southampton, his blood alcohol level was low enough that he would have been legal to drive a car. While walking home he is said to have encountered Digwa in the street, and the two exchanged words.
A video Nowak recorded of the interaction on his mobile phone of the moment the two met showed him call out “Innit bad man, what bad man. You’re a bad man, say you’re a bad man, go on”. Digwa, who was wearing an “extremely large” knife over his chest, replied in the video as seen by the jury “I am a bad man” before it cut out, notes Sky News.
Witnesses stated they heard Nowak say he had been stabbed and was dying, as he fled Digwa who “chose to aggressively pursue him”. Police were called, and when officers arrived Digwa told them “he had been racially abused and attacked by a drunken man”.
Accountancy and finance student Nowak protested that he hadn’t attacked Digwa and had in fact been stabbed himself. Nevertheless, Officers handcuffed Nowak, who died at the scene shortly afterwards. A post-mortem subsequently discovered four stab wounds on Henry’s body.
The prosecution said: “Put simply, Henry drowned in his own blood with his lung having been cut by the knife going eight centimetres into him… [Digwa] didn’t seek help for the man he had injured with his sizeable knife, instead he accused him of being a racist and being drunk.”
The court further heard that Nowak’s mobile phone was later discovered by officers in Digwa’s pocket. It is claimed that Digwa’s father, mother, and brother came to the scene. His mother is said to have been filmed removing the alleged murder weapon, taking it to her home nearby.
Police subsequently found the knife among an “arsenal of weapons” at the home and Kaur has been charged with assisting an offender, reports the BBC.
The court heard Digwa is of the Sikh faith and that this faith requires its followers to carry a knife at all times. Generally, this obligation is fulfilled by a small ceremonial blade called a kirpan, and there is a special exemption from Britain’s otherwise extremely strict knife laws to allow this.
The court heard that at the time of the alleged attack, Digwa was found to be carrying two small kirpans about the body, as well as the much larger eight inch shastar knife it is alleged his mother attempted to hide.
The Daily Mail states Digwa’s defence lawyer said the knives were carried legitimately and that his client acted in the “heat of the moment in self defence”, questioning whether “drunk” Novak “started this incident”.
Digwa and Kaur deny all charges. The trial continues.