The man accused of fatally stabbing an 18-year-old university student in Southampton with a Sikh kirpan has denied a newly added manslaughter charge during proceedings at Southampton Crown Court. Vickrum Digwa, 23, is already on trial accused of murdering Henry Nowak in Belmont Road, Southampton, Hampshire, on December 3, 2025.
Digwa also faces a charge of possessing a knife in public. The court heard that Digwa entered a not guilty plea to the manslaughter count after Judge William Mousley told jurors he had directed that the alternative charge be put before them.
Explaining the decision, the judge said: “If a person may not have deliberately have caused the fatal injury or may not have intended to kill or cause reasonably serious harm, he or she is not guilty of murder," he said, according to the Daily Echo UK.
“Then there is an alternative charge and that charge is the offence of manslaughter and a person commits the offence of manslaughter if he or she deliberately, unlawfully and not in reasonable self-defence caused the death of another by an act that a reasonable person would realise could result in some, if not really serious, harm.”
Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, is charged with assisting an offender by allegedly removing the weapon from the scene after the stabbing. She denies the allegation.
During the hearing, jurors also asked whether carrying a kirpan of the size allegedly involved in the case would be unlawful. Judge Mousley said a person would need a “good reason” for carrying it, including religious purposes or “only for self-defence.”
He added: “It is for Vickrum Digwa to prove that it is more likely than not that he had a good reason for having it.”
Earlier in the trial, Digwa told the court that Nowak had been drunk and racially abused him before punching him and knocking off his turban. He said he stabbed Nowak in the back of the legs in self-defence after being threatened and grabbed by the hair, but claimed he did not realize at the time that a fatal wound had been caused to the chest.
When police arrived to the scene, Nowak had already suffered fatal injuries, was then handcuffed and died on the scene.
Nowak, a first-year accountancy and finance student at the University of Southampton, had been with his football team earlier in the evening and had consumed alcohol before walking home.
Court testimony has outlined that emergency services were called to the scene following reports of a violent incident.
Prosecutors have told the court that Nowak suffered catastrophic injuries. Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC said: “Put simply, Henry drowned in his own blood with his lung having been cut by the knife going eight centimetres into him.” Digwa is advancing a self-defense argument: “Vickrum Digwa raises the defence of self defence. He persisted that Henry perpetrated a drunken racist attack. He says he doesn't recall exactly how the fatal wound came to be inflicted.”
Digwa also faces a charge of possessing a knife in public. The court heard that Digwa entered a not guilty plea to the manslaughter count after Judge William Mousley told jurors he had directed that the alternative charge be put before them.
Explaining the decision, the judge said: “If a person may not have deliberately have caused the fatal injury or may not have intended to kill or cause reasonably serious harm, he or she is not guilty of murder," he said, according to the Daily Echo UK.
“Then there is an alternative charge and that charge is the offence of manslaughter and a person commits the offence of manslaughter if he or she deliberately, unlawfully and not in reasonable self-defence caused the death of another by an act that a reasonable person would realise could result in some, if not really serious, harm.”
Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, is charged with assisting an offender by allegedly removing the weapon from the scene after the stabbing. She denies the allegation.
During the hearing, jurors also asked whether carrying a kirpan of the size allegedly involved in the case would be unlawful. Judge Mousley said a person would need a “good reason” for carrying it, including religious purposes or “only for self-defence.”
He added: “It is for Vickrum Digwa to prove that it is more likely than not that he had a good reason for having it.”
Earlier in the trial, Digwa told the court that Nowak had been drunk and racially abused him before punching him and knocking off his turban. He said he stabbed Nowak in the back of the legs in self-defence after being threatened and grabbed by the hair, but claimed he did not realize at the time that a fatal wound had been caused to the chest.
When police arrived to the scene, Nowak had already suffered fatal injuries, was then handcuffed and died on the scene.
Nowak, a first-year accountancy and finance student at the University of Southampton, had been with his football team earlier in the evening and had consumed alcohol before walking home.
Court testimony has outlined that emergency services were called to the scene following reports of a violent incident.
Prosecutors have told the court that Nowak suffered catastrophic injuries. Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC said: “Put simply, Henry drowned in his own blood with his lung having been cut by the knife going eight centimetres into him.” Digwa is advancing a self-defense argument: “Vickrum Digwa raises the defence of self defence. He persisted that Henry perpetrated a drunken racist attack. He says he doesn't recall exactly how the fatal wound came to be inflicted.”
