The mother of Henry Nowak’s killer has been jailed for three years for taking the Sikh religious knife used in the murder from the scene and hiding it among an arsenal of other weapons in her son’s bedroom.
Indian immigrant Kiran Kaur, 53, was found guilty in May of assisting an offender by the same Southampton Crown Court jury that convicted her son Vickrum Digwa, 23, of murdering Nowak, 18, in the street in December last year.
Digwa was jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years for stabbing Nowak to death in the unprovoked attack, where he falsely told police Nowak had racially abused him and knocked his turban off, resulting in the university student dying in handcuffs while arresting officers ignored his pleas for help.
Kaur, a mother-of-five who needed a Punjabi interpreter in court, then took the 21cm ceremonial blade and stashed it among a pile of other knives and swords in the family home despite it still being smeared with Nowak’s blood and tissue.
The court heard the absence of a murder weapon at the scene “hampered police”, and led to Nowak “dying terrified, alone and disbelieved”.
Judge William Mousley KC told Kaur in sentencing: “[Your sons] lied to police that Vickrum had been racially abused and assaulted. By then you and your husband were at the scene.
“Your son, Gurpreet, explained that no weapons had been involved or were present. In fact, whilst he was talking to the call operator, Vickrum told you to take the murder weapon, sheath and belt away. By then, you knew or believed that he had stabbed and injured Henry.
“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 court also heard that Kaur was “embedded in the Sikh community” but spoke little English and suffered health problems.
The judge also told Kaur it was clear she acted “because you wanted [Digwa] to avoid being caught”, and that she “denied guilt while in police custody and continue[s] to do so”.
“Even if you might have believed that your son had been racially abused and assaulted, you knew there could be no justification for him to have stabbed Henry. Your son had no significant injury,” he said.
Digwa, his older brother Gurpreet, 27, and his father Moga Singh, 52, have also been charged with weapons offences over dozens of knives, swords, machetes, batons and knuckle dusters found in their home, but have pleaded not guilty and will face trial in September.
Nowak’s murder and the police response, in which an officer replied “I don’t think you have, mate” when the dying man said he had been stabbed, sparked global outrage and street protests in Southampton, and sparked calls for Sikh religious knives to be banned.
Header image: Left, Kiran Kaur. Inset, Vickrum Digwa (Hampshire Police). Right, Henry Nowak (supplied).
