The Court of Appeal has raised the minimum term Vickrum Digwa must serve for the murder of white teenager Henry Nowak, after Nigel Farage wrote to the Attorney General urging the government to appeal for a stronger sentence. Digwa must now serve at least 25 years before being considered for parole, instead of the initially imposed 21.
Background.
Digwa, 23, is a Sikh who belongs to the Nihang, a traditional martial order within Sikhism historically associated with the open carrying of edged weapons as religious symbols. On December 3, 2025, he killed Nowak, a first-year University of Southampton student from Essex, while he was walking home alone at night, unarmed. Digwa was carrying a large religious dagger openly on his belt, in addition to a smaller dagger under his clothing. He approached Nowak, took his phone, and stabbed him repeatedly.
After the attack, Digwa filmed the still-conscious Nowak, zooming in on his face while verbally abusing him. He then lied to arriving police officers that Nowak had attacked first and racially abused him. Body-worn camera footage showed officers ignoring Nowak’s pleas that he had been stabbed and handcuffing him as he lay dying, treating Digwa’s false racism accusation more seriously than the fatal attack itself.
Sentence Hearing.
On Thursday, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting with Mr. Justice Nicklin and Mr. Justice Wall, ruled that 21 years failed to reflect the overall seriousness of the murder and was therefore not merely lenient but unduly so. The judges described Digwa’s filming of the aftermath as incomprehensible cruelty that added further distress and degradation. They also stated that Digwa’s legal right, as a Sikh, to carry a religious blade did not lessen the seriousness of its later lethal use against an unarmed and defenseless stranger. The 21-year minimum term was quashed and increased to 25 years. Digwa watched the hearing by video link and reportedly showed no reaction.
Farage Lobbied the Attorney General.
Farage had earlier stressed that the original term was lower than the recommended minimum for a sustained, murderous assault, exacerbated by the fact that Digwa and his family actively lied to police that Nowak had not been stabbed. The Reform UK leader said he would write to the Attorney General and subsequently confirmed he had made the formal request for a sentence review under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme.
In the same period, Farage publicly criticized the police mishandling of the scene as evidence of anti-white discrimination and two-tier policing, noting that an accusation of a racial slur had been treated more seriously than an act of murder.
