An 18-year-old first-year university student lost his life in a senseless, violent random encounter in Southampton in December 2025, with newly released CCTV, police bodycam footage, 999 call transcripts and judicial sentencing remarks shedding full light on the tragic sequence of events that led to his death.
Henry Nowak, just a few months into his university studies, was killed on his journey back to his off-campus student accommodation on December 3. His killer, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, was found guilty of murder in late May 2026 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a mandatory minimum term of 21 years behind bars.
The night’s timeline is clearly laid out through the recovered CCTV footage. At 20:30 GMT, Nowak was recorded entering the lift at his university halls of residence, dressed in a white shirt, tie and quarter-zip fleece and carrying a bottle. He adjusted his hair in the lift mirror before exiting, walking to a local convenience store to purchase a drink, and then continuing on to The Hobbit pub, where door staff checked his identification at the entrance. Internal pub footage captured him moving through the venue, passing a small group in the beer garden before heading back out onto the street. By 23:07, CCTV shows Nowak walking back toward his accommodation, passing a group of pedestrians along a street lit by streetlamps before increasing his pace to jog down the road.
During Digwa’s sentencing hearing on June 1, Judge William Mousley KC outlined the fateful chance intersection of the two men’s paths. Nowak was traveling north along Belmont Road, which brought him to the junction of St Denys Road – the street where Digwa resided. Digwa was walking south along the same road at exactly the same time, creating an entirely random meeting. Judge Mousley confirmed that Nowak was alone, carried no weapons, and was not intoxicated: post-mortem testing found his blood alcohol level was below the legal limit for driving in the UK.
As a Sikh, Digwa carried a required religious kirpan knife sheathed at his belt, which Judge Mousley noted is a strict obligation for observant Sikhs. However, Digwa was also carrying a second, larger dagger, a tradition tied to his membership in the Nihang Sikh order – a practice that is not a required religious obligation. Nowak noticed the larger blade and began filming it on his mobile phone, before asking Digwa if he was a “bad man”, according to the judge’s recounting. Digwa responded by confirming he was “a bad man” and seized Nowak’s phone.
No witnesses other than the two men saw the immediate confrontation that followed, but Judge Mousley laid out the logical and evidence-based conclusion of events: “It would not be unreasonable to conclude that Henry would have wanted his phone back, believing it had been stolen from him or that he had been robbed.” In the ensuing scuffle, Digwa pulled the larger dagger from its sheath and deliberately stabbed the unprotected student in the chest. He went on to stab Nowak three more times – two additional wounds to the upper leg – and the judge noted that the initial stab wound had such a devastating impact that Nowak never had the chance to raise his hands to defend himself from further attack.
Footage recorded by Digwa himself shows Nowak desperately fleeing the attack, climbing a residential fence, scrambling onto a communal waste bin before falling onto a car parked in front of the neighboring property. Rather than calling for emergency aid, Digwa continued to film the mortally wounded teen as he suffered, ignoring his desperate pleas for help.
Roughly 25 minutes after Nowak was captured on CCTV heading home, Digwa’s brother, Gurpreet Digwa, placed the 999 emergency call. He falsely told operators that Vickrum had been the victim of a racial assault by Nowak, telling the handler, “He’s physically attacked my brother. We’re Sikhs, we wear turbans and he’s just attacked my brother.” When asked if weapons were involved, Gurpreet claimed none had been used, but conceded that Nowak required medical attention. The 12-minute call ended with the emergency handler confirming that police and an ambulance would be dispatched immediately to the location.
Seven minutes after the call was placed, at 23:37, the first police officers arrived at the scene. Police bodycam footage shows four people standing on a residential driveway, with Nowak collapsed on the ground. Digwa repeated his false claim to responding officers, telling them Nowak had racially abused him. Just 71 seconds after officers arrived, Nowak was clearly heard on the bodycam footage repeating that he had been stabbed, saying “I can’t breathe” seven times. Despite this, by 23:38, officers had handcuffed Nowak and placed him under arrest, reading him his Miranda rights before calling for an ambulance a minute later and starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Judge Mousley confirmed that the severity of Nowak’s injuries meant his death was unavoidable, even if emergency medical treatment had been administered immediately. Less than four hours after he was recorded leaving his halls of residence on that Saturday night, Nowak was pronounced dead.
Five days after the killing, on December 8, Vickrum Digwa was formally charged with murder and possession of a bladed article in a public space. He was convicted of murder by a jury on May 28, 2026, and sentenced three days later to life imprisonment with a minimum of 21 years to serve before eligibility for parole.
Additional reporting for this story was provided by Marina Costa, covering policing in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.