Killer of Henry Nowak should have been given longer jail term, appeal court told

The man who murdered Henry Nowak should have received a longer sentence because he falsely accused his victim of racism and abused a religious right to carry a knife, the court of appeal has heard.

Vickrum Digwa, 23, was jailed for life in June with a minimum term of 21 years for killing Nowak, 18, in an attack in Southampton in December last year.

When police arrived at the murder scene, Digwa falsely claimed that Nowak had racially abused him and knocked his turban off. Officers arrested and handcuffed the fatally wounded teenager before noticing his injuries, and the incident went on to spark riots in Southampton.

The attorney general, Ellie Reeves, referred Digwa's sentence to the court of appeal as "unduly lenient". At a hearing on Thursday, judges also considered Digwa's own appeal that his punishment was "manifestly excessive".

In written submissions for Reeves, Jonathan Polnay KC said the sentence failed to take account of a series of "significant aggravating factors", including Digwa's "false allegation of racism against the deceased". Polnay said Digwa had "abused the privilege" afforded to Sikhs to carry a blade in public for religious reasons, telling the court: "The offender was carrying a substantial bladed weapon in public, immediately available for use, which he repeatedly deployed against an unarmed and defenceless stranger."

At Digwa's sentencing, Judge William Mousley KC said the killer had a small concealed knife known as a kirpan, which Sikhs are strictly required to carry at all times, as well as a "large dagger in a sheath" connected to his membership of the Nihang, an order of Sikhs with a tradition of carrying a second knife. Polnay stressed that the attempt to increase the sentence was "not about the lawful possession of a kirpan", adding: "It is about what followed." He described Digwa's use of the dagger as "on at least one level, analogous to an abuse of trust".

Polnay also cited Digwa's "sustained attempts to pervert the course of justice" and "his procurement of his mother's assistance in concealing evidence". Digwa's mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, was jailed for three years for assisting an offender by taking the knife from the scene of the murder back to the family home. Other aggravating factors included Digwa's "degradation of the dying victim by filming him, and his conduct in misleading responders", Polnay said, arguing that the minimum term "failed adequately to reflect the combined weight of those features".

Digwa watched the proceedings from HMP Frankland in County Durham, dressed in a dark suit, shirt and tie. Representing him, Imran Khan KC said the sentence could be increased only in "exceptional, rather than borderline cases, and directed to gross error by the sentencing judge", asking: "Where is the gross error?" He said the judge had "already expressly aggravated [the sentence] for both the dangerous weapon and the abuse of religious privilege", and warned against "using the same underlying facts repeatedly", adding that carrying a knife for religious reasons "should not of itself" mean longer sentences for Sikh offenders.

Khan accepted that Digwa's lies to first responders "unquestionably affected the dignity with which Mr Nowak was treated", but said the teenager's wounds were unsurvivable. "The false account therefore did not worsen the fatal injury or deprive Mr Nowak of the prospect of survival," he said. When the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, responded that it "must have been terrifying for Henry", Khan replied: "I accept that." The hearing before Lady Carr, Mr Justice Nicklin and Mr Justice Wall was due to conclude on Thursday.