Southampton student killing returns to court
A migrant armed with a ritual knife attacked an English student, while responding police officers handcuffed not the attacker, but the victim. The tragedy, which took place in December 2025, has now continued in court.
Eighteen-year-old Henry Novak was walking home from a football team party when he encountered a man carrying a 21-centimetre knife. At the moment of the confrontation, the student was recording a video for friends on Snapchat. His phone captured the attacker’s face.
The sudden attack lasted only a few minutes. Neighbours did not hear the sounds of a struggle. Wounded and bleeding, Novak tried to run. He attempted to climb over a fence and called for help.
When police arrived, they put handcuffs on him, not on his attacker. The wounds proved fatal. The young footballer died at the scene.
The trial of 23-year-old Vikrum Digwa has opened at Southampton Crown Court. He is charged with murder. His mother, 53-year-old Kiran Kaur, is accused of assisting him after the killing. Prosecutors say she removed the knife from the scene and took it home. Both deny the charges.
Snapchat video captures the encounter
On December 3, 2025, Novak, a first-year student at the University of Southampton, had been marking the end of the semester with his football team. According to the court, he had drunk less than the legal driving limit and was walking home along Belmont Road, sending videos to friends on Snapchat.
The footage shows Digwa walking towards him. On his belt was a large knife in an open sheath. The judge described the weapon as “extremely large”.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg told the court that the young man’s phone recorded the moment he encountered Vikrum Digwa.
Neighbours later heard cries of: “I’ve been stabbed, I’m dying.” Novak tried to climb over a bin and a fence to escape. But, the prosecutor said, “he had already been fatally wounded, and the blood trail in the street shows he was stabbed before he climbed onto the bin and over the fence”.
According to the prosecution, Digwa “chose aggressive pursuit”.
A post-mortem examination found four stab wounds: two to the chest and two to the legs. One wound pierced a lung. Lobbenberg gave the jury a stark description:
“Henry drowned in his own blood.”
Later, while hidden microphones recorded Digwa and his brother in a police vehicle, the accused told his relative: “I stabbed Henry three times.” At that point, he mentioned neither self-defence nor racial abuse. Those claims appeared later, when he had to explain his actions to police.
Why police handcuffed the victim
When officers arrived at the scene, Digwa claimed that Novak had attacked him first, allegedly using racist language while drunk. According to the prosecutor, “he did not seek help for the man he had wounded with his enormous knife. Instead, he accused him of racism and drunkenness.”
The student, bleeding heavily, objected: “I didn’t attack him, I was stabbed.” Even so, police handcuffed the 18-year-old.
“Shortly afterwards, Henry lost consciousness, and only then did police begin giving first aid and calling an ambulance. A doctor was brought in by helicopter, but Henry could not be saved,” Lobbenberg told the court. Death was pronounced at 00:37.
Ritual knife or weapon?
Digwa’s defence argues that he carried the knife for religious reasons. Defence barrister Jeremy Wainwright KC told jurors that Sikhism requires believers to carry certain items: a wooden comb, a steel bracelet and a ceremonial dagger, or kirpan.
According to him, a small kirpan worn under clothing would satisfy any religious requirement. The larger knife, the defence argues, did not exceed the permitted length for a kirpan, which it put at nine inches.
The prosecutor pushed back.
“Mr Digwa chose to carry a very large knife with a 21-centimetre blade on the streets of Southampton,” he said.
Victim’s phone found in attacker’s pocket
Novak’s phone, which had recorded the incident, was later found in Digwa’s pocket. That fact alone, prosecutors suggest, is significant.
The prosecutor also drew the jury’s attention to another detail. In the video filmed before the attack, Digwa’s hair was tied in a tight bun. By the time police arrived, his hair was loose.
“Why had he let his hair down by the time police arrived? What does that tell you about what he was telling them?” Lobbenberg asked.
Mother accused of hiding evidence
Kiran Kaur, the defendant’s mother, was recorded on video taking the bloodied knife from the scene and carrying it home. Police later found the weapon at the family home.
Forensic testing found Novak’s blood and fatty tissue on the blade, as well as Digwa’s hair and Kaur’s DNA on the sheath.
“Was he acting in the heat of the moment?”
The defence insists this was a case of self-defence. Wainwright asked jurors to consider who started the confrontation and posed the central question:
“Did Vikrum Digwa intend to cause Henry Novak really serious harm or kill him when he used his kirpan, or was he acting in the heat of the moment, defending himself?”
In a prepared statement to police, Digwa claimed that Novak attacked him, knocked off his turban, grabbed him by the hair, and that, with hair covering his eyes, he “twice struck with his kirpan” in self-defence.
The prosecutor reminded jurors that, in the recording from the police van, Digwa admitted to his brother that he had stabbed Novak three times. He made no mention then of racism or self-defence.
Family says Henry never made it home
Shortly after the tragedy, Novak’s family said Henry had been a first-year student and had gone out that evening with new friends from the football team.
“It is devastating that he never made it home,” the family said.
The trial continues. Digwa denies murder. His mother denies assisting an offender. Southampton police have not explained why officers handcuffed the bleeding 18-year-old rather than the man with the large knife.
