UK court raises Vickrum Digwa’s murder sentence minimum
The Court of Appeal increased the minimum from 21 years to 25 years. After deducting 175 days spent on remand, it set an operative minimum of 24 years and 190 days.
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The Court of Appeal increased the minimum from 21 years to 25 years. After deducting 175 days spent on remand, it set an operative minimum of 24 years and 190 days.
The Court of Appeal has increased the minimum term Vickrum Digwa must serve for murdering Henry Nowak, after finding his original sentence unduly lenient. The longer term delays when Digwa can be considered for release.
Digwa received a life sentence in June for murdering Nowak, 18, in Southampton. The court increased the original minimum of 21 years to 25 years. After deducting 175 days Digwa spent in custody on remand, it set the operative minimum at 24 years and 190 days.
Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr said the original judge had understated Digwa’s repeated use of a large, readily available dagger with intent to kill an unarmed man. The judge had also understated the deliberate cruelty, additional suffering and obstruction of justice that followed the stabbing, she said.
Carr said that knowingly carrying a large blade in public, even lawfully, and using it to kill an unarmed man after a brief altercation involved culpability closer to carrying a weapon for offensive use than picking one up at the scene.
Jonathan Polnay, acting for Attorney General Ellie Reeves, argued that Digwa’s alleged abuse of a religious knife exemption and a false allegation of racism against Nowak were aggravating factors. Polnay said the application concerned Digwa’s subsequent conduct, not lawful possession of a kirpan or the laws allowing Sikhs to carry blades. A kirpan is a small knife carried by Sikhs for religious reasons; the ruling did not change those exemptions.
Carr said the court did not need to decide whether Digwa’s allegation of racial abuse was false: leaving that finding out did not affect its assessment of the appropriate minimum term.
Digwa’s lawyer, Imran Khan, argued that the sentencing judge had already accounted for the weapon and the abuse of religious privilege, and warned against counting the same facts repeatedly. The court refused Digwa permission to appeal his sentence, rejecting the argument that it was manifestly excessive,
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