A 23-year-old British Sikh man who claimed using a large knife he carried for religious reasons in self-defence was on Thursday convicted of the murder of an 18-year-old student in south-east England.Vickrum Digwa was found guilty of fatally stabbing Henry Nowak five times with the 21-cm blade as the Southampton University student returned home from a night out in Porstwood last December.Digwa’s mother, 53-year-old Kiran Kaur, was convicted of assisting an offender at Southampton Crown Court. Judge William Mousley described the trial as a “particularly difficult case”, indicating that Digwa will be sentenced on Monday and his mother on July 17.”This is not a case about Sikhism. This is not a case about racism. This is a case about murder,” prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg told the jury.The case highlighted the legal parameters around the Sikh community’s right to carry a kirpan, with the judge noting that under UK law such a bladed item must be for religious or self-defence reasons.The court heard that Digwa had alleged being racially threatened by Nowak and even denied that any weapon had been used. This led Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary officers to handcuff the victim when they arrived at the scene of the crime.”I am deeply sorry that Henry could not be saved. I am deeply sorry that in the moments he lost consciousness, he had been handcuffed and arrested,” said Robert France, Temporary Deputy Chief Constable of the Constabulary.”The facts heard in court should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind who was lying to officers that night, and why we didn’t immediately understand what had happened.”During the 999 call, when officers first arrived at the scene, and even when Henry’s condition was deteriorating quickly, his killer continued to divert the blame, obstruct our enquiries and never admit the serious harm which had been done,” he said.The force faced criticism over its handling of the case and has referred the incident to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) for an independent investigation into the police response.”I understand that there are many questions about what happened that night. In those moments, the officers who attended didn’t have all the information we have today. The attending officers sought to take control of a complex situation. Based on what they had been told, they placed Henry in handcuffs,” said France.He defended his officers for responding “swiftly” to a confusing and unclear situation and for giving first aid to try to save Nowak’s life “within minutes”.”Henry Nowak was an 18-year-old who had his whole future in front of him. That future has been cut short through a senseless attack. Today, the person who was responsible for killing Henry has rightly been convicted of his murder,” added France.Giving evidence in court, Digwa told the jury he had been defending himself and denied charges of murder, manslaughter and possession of a bladed article in a public place.But he was found guilty after they heard that instead of calling an ambulance or police immediately, he filmed the victim as he sat on the floor. His mother then came and removed the eight-inch knife he had used from the scene. When officers arrived at the scene, he even complained of a swollen eye while disputing that he had used a knife.Once the severity of Nowak’s condition became clear, the police removed the handcuffs and an ambulance was called. A pathologist told the court that nothing officers would have done that night could have saved the victim’s life, and he was pronounced dead at the scene in the early hours of December 4, 2025.Digwa was arrested at the scene and his mother was arrested at a nearby address in Southampton.Earlier this month, Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick raised the matter in Parliament: “A student on a night out is stabbed multiple times with a 21-centimetre knife. He is lying in a pool of his own blood, literally drowning in his blood.”The police come to the scene, but instead of doing everything they can to save his life, they handcuff and arrest the lad because there is an accusation of racial abuse. This is a scandal.”The case even attracted the social media attention of tech billionaire Elon Musk, who took to his X platform to criticise the UK authorities and offered to fund a “wrongful death” lawsuit against the police.