A university student died after being repeatedly stabbed by a man armed with a Sikh ceremonial sword, a court heard.
Finance student Henry Nowak, 18, was on his way home from a night out when he was allegedly attacked by stranger Vikrum Digwa, 23, with the eight inch ‘Shastar’ blade.
Digwa was caught on camera saying ‘I am a bad man’ before the fatal attack, jurors were told.
He is now on trial accused of murder alongside his mother Kiran Kaur, 53, who is accused of assisting an offender.
Prosecutors said she went to the scene before running home with the knife to stash it among an ‘arsenal of weapons’ there. They both deny the charges.
Southampton Crown Court heard Mr Nowak was in his first term studying accountancy and finance at Southampton University when he went for a night out in the city on December 3, 2023 with friends from his football team.
The teenager went home at around 11pm and having ‘drunk less than the legal limit to drive’.
Jurors were told he was speaking to friends on Snapchat when he came across Digwa.
After he was stabbed Mr Nowak tried to climb a fence to escape but Digwa was ‘aggressively pursuing’ him, leaving a trail of blood, the court heard.
Police were called to the scene but arrested Mr Nowak after Digwa claimed he had been racially abused.
Mr Nowak was then handcuffed before passing out and dying in the street a short time later.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC said: ‘Put simply, Henry drowned in his own blood with his lung having been cut by the knife going eight centimetres into him.
‘Vickrum Digwa raises the defence of self defence. He persisted that Henry perpetrated a drunken racist attack. He says he doesn’t recall exactly how the fatal wound came to be inflicted.’
Opening the case on Thursday, Mr Lobbenberg told jurors that Mr Nowak’s phone had captured the moment he met Digwa.
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The prosecutor said at the scene Digwa denied stabbing Mr Nowak and instead claimed he had been ‘racially abused and attacked by a drunken man’.
Mr Lobbenberg said: ‘He didn’t seek help for the man he had injured with his sizeable knife, instead he accused him of being a racist and being drunk.’
He said police initially handcuffed Mr Nowak but started giving him first aid when he collapsed.
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He suffered four stab wounds including two in the back of his legs and one in his lung.
Analysis of the knife found blood and fatty tissue matched to Mr Nowak and hairs from Digwa as well as DNA from Kaur were on the sheath.
In the UK Sikhs are legally permitted to carry a Kirpan knife in public as it is protected under religious exemption laws.
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The post Sikh Man Stabbed 18-Year-Old University Student to Death With an Eight-Inch Ceremonial Knife After Claiming He’d Been Racially Abused, Court Hears appeared first on American Renaissance.
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