Vickrum Digwa warned officers that Henry was wounded after they arrested and handcuffed the dying teenager because the killer had falsely claimed he was the victim
New video footage shows Henry Nowak’s murderer telling police he was bleeding before officers took eight minutes to find that he had been fatally stabbed.
Vickrum Digwa is filmed falsely claiming Henry, 18, had attacked him in a racially motivated attack in Southampton. In the police bodyworn footage, Sikh murderer Digwa, 23, claims the teen obtained his bloody wounds either from a “punch” or because he ‘fell over” while climbing on bins.
The knifeman claims that Henry was drunk and had attacked him and pulled his turban off. Digwa was not handcuffed when he was arrested for attempted murder in the footage – while Henry was cuffed by the same officers minutes before.
Digwa was jailed for 23 years for murder and possession of an offensive weapon at Southampton Crown Court last month, sparking violent protests in the city.
He murdered Henry in December last year as Henry walked back from a university night out.
In the footage released on Friday, Digwa’s father Moga Singh can be heard explaining to the police: “My son’s just been assaulted. The gentleman that’s on the floor assaulted my son.”
Digwa then explained: “He pushed my turban off my head and started grabbing my hair. So I’m a Sikh obviously, and he started grabbing my hair and dragging me around. My brother’s seen it, stopped it, and that’s where he’s then started stumbling around, started climbing around all these bits and bobs and stuff like that.
“Literally I saw him from there and from the get go I said ‘look mate, you clearly are obviously drunk’, I said to him ‘just carry on with your day’ and he started escalating, calling me a P**i and all that stuff. And this isn’t the first time that we’ve had something like this happen here. We’ve lived here since I was four and five and I’ve had it recently.”
Digwa adds: “My dad’s come rushing. He was in bed. And we’ve put him there. Against the wall just to make sure everything… cos then we saw he was like bleeding. “
When police asked him to move, he said: “Do you mind if we turn the flashes off, sorry? Can we move over here then so it’s not in my eyes?”
They moved again and Digwa continued: “This isn’t the first time we’ve had altercations. Not even altercations, we’ve had people racially attack us during the morning.”
An officer asked: “Do you know how he’s got that wound then?” Digwa responded: “What wound, sorry?” The officer clarified: “Well you said he’s got blood on him, how’s he… how’s he?”
Digwa lied in his answer, saying: “It must have been when we punched him. Must have been when we punched him. But he did fall over here, so he was climbing all over these bins and stuff like that and then he’s fell over and landed onto that car.”
When the police officer finally arrested Digwa, the murderer pleaded: “What do you mean attempted murder? Why am I getting arrested?”
The arresting police officer said that Digwa has ‘his side of the story’ but that the police don’t know what’s happened so they need to find out.
The officer added “I’m not saying you’ve done anything, mate.” Digwa said: “Mate, I’ve been racially attacked.” To which the officer responds “I know, I know, I know.”
When Judge William Mousley KC sentenced Digwa, he told him: “I am sure that Henry had said nothing racist. You are the only person to make that claim and it is completely at odds with his previous character.”
It was also put forward by the prosecution that footage before the police arrived showed Digwa with his turban on his head, and that Digwa himself had taken it off in an attempt to make himself seem like the victim.
Henry had started recording Digwa when he saw the man carrying an eight-inch Sikh ceremonial blade. That footage has never been released publicly.
Digwa’s lies led to Henry being arrested and handcuffed while he was dying. He exclaimed ‘I can’t breathe’.
It took police eight minutes to find the young man’s fatal wounds, despite him insisting that he had been stabbed and begging for help before he lost consciousness. Digwa and his family, who arrived on the scene after the attack, had insisted that Henry was aggressor.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC previously told the jury at Digwa’s trial that there was a stream of lies from the murderer starting from the minutes after the incident.
He said: “We say this, ‘drunk’ is a lie, ‘going to kill me’ is a lie and we say ‘Paki’ is a lie. The consequence and purpose of these lies is significant. Why he tells them is he is seeking to hide what he has done.
“And racism was his trump card to try to make sure what he had done was lawful. We say that was a wicked lie about a dying man and it is a wicked lie about a dead man to you now.”
Digwa was revealed during the trial to be a weapons fanatic with an ‘arsenal’ of weapons in his room at his family home.
The arrest of Henry led to violent protests in Southampton where he went to university, with 25 protesters being charged with violent disorder.
Hampshire Constabulary are under an IOPC investigation for the arrest.
