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The mother of convicted murderer Vickrum Digwa has been sentenced to three years in prison after helping her son conceal the knife used to kill 18-year-old university student Henry Nowak, a case that sparked riots in Southampton.
Kiran Kaur, 53, was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court after being found guilty of assisting an offender by removing the murder weapon from the scene following the fatal stabbing on December 3, 2025. Prosecutors said she took the knife back to the family home in an attempt to help her son evade justice.
Her son, Vickrum Digwa, 23, was previously sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years after being convicted of murdering Nowak. The finance student at the University of Southampton was stabbed five times while walking home after spending the evening with his football teammates.
In the aftermath of the attack, Digwa falsely claimed that Nowak had racially abused him and knocked off his turban. Acting on those allegations before realizing the extent of the victim's injuries, police initially handcuffed Nowak at the scene. The false accusation later fueled public outrage and contributed to violent riots in Southampton.
While sentencing Kaur, Judge William Mousley KC said she had failed in her responsibility as a parent by helping to conceal the crime instead of encouraging her son to cooperate with investigators.
"A responsible parent would have challenged their son over their actions and encouraged them to do the right thing," the judge said. He added that by hiding the knife among other ceremonial and personal weapons in her son's bedroom, Kaur helped disguise its role in the killing and reinforced Digwa's false claim that he was the victim.
Investigators eventually identified the murder weapon after reviewing CCTV footage and recovered it approximately one week after the stabbing.
Prosecutors argued that Kaur's decision to remove the knife significantly obstructed the early stages of the investigation. They said officers arriving at the scene were already confronted with false claims from Digwa, and the missing weapon made it more difficult to establish what had happened.
The prosecution also emphasized that Kaur never informed police about the knife, describing her actions as a deliberate effort to interfere with the investigation.
Defense lawyer Mark Watson urged the court to impose a suspended sentence, describing Kaur as a devoted mother of five, an active volunteer, and a respected member of her community with no previous criminal record. However, the court ruled that the seriousness of her actions warranted immediate imprisonment.
Following the sentencing, the Crown Prosecution Service said the case sends a clear message that anyone who deliberately helps a murderer avoid justice will also face serious legal consequences.
The murder of Henry Nowak shocked the local community and gained national attention after it emerged that the victim had initially been treated as a suspect because of Digwa's fabricated allegations. The incident later triggered riots across Southampton, with authorities charging at least 25 people with violent disorder linked to the unrest.
Digwa had been carrying both a small kirpan, a ceremonial blade traditionally worn by initiated Sikhs, and a larger knife that he claimed was for religious purposes. The larger knife was identified as the weapon used in the fatal attack.
Henry Nowak, originally from Essex, had recently begun studying finance at the University of Southampton. His death remains one of the city's most high-profile criminal cases, with the latest sentencing bringing further accountability to those involved in concealing the crime.
