Henry Nowak murder: Killer Vickrum Digwa tells brother ‘I am a fool’ 36 hours after murdering 18-year-old
The man who killed the UK 18-year-old with a ceremonial blade and told police that he was the victim of a racial attack was recorded confessing to his brother 36 hours afterwards.
The man who killed UK 18-year-old Henry Nowak to death and told police that he was the victim of a racist attack was recorded less than 36 hours later telling his brother how he had repeatedly stabbed the slain teen.
The BBC reports that Vickrum Digwa was recorded in the back of a UK police van telling his brother Gurpeet in Punjabi “I’m a fool”, after his brother questioned his use of a ceremonial knife on Nowak.
The admission came when the siblings were being driven from a police station and a court for a December custody hearing.
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However, a translated transcript of the exchanges in the police van between the brothers on December 5 revealed Digwa and Gurpeet praying to God to “save” them and their parents.
The transcript, which was obtained from the Crown Prosecution Service by the BBC, recorded Gurpreet asking Vickrum “Did you even do anything?”
In response, the killer pointed at his shoulder and replied: “One here, towards the face and one on the chest”.
His 27-year-old brother then says: “You should not have done it” before repeatedly telling Digwa, 23, that he should have either “pushed” the victim or “hit him or beaten him up” instead.
Gurpreet also asks: “Why did you use the kirpan?” - a reference to the 21cm Sikh ceremonial knife which Nowak was stabbed with.
Vickrum simply replies: “I am a fool”.
There are legal permissions for practising Sikhs to carry blades for religious reasons and Vickrum Digwa had been wearing a smaller kirpan around his neck at the time of the murder.
However, he used the second, bigger knife to fatally stab Nowak.
The difference between the smaller and larger ceremonial blades then becomes a legal argument between the two brothers in the back of the police van.
At one point Gurpreet tells his brother to tell police that he used the “Dorri” - the smaller blade warn around the neck.
Digwa replies that he would check with his solicitor.
“What was written,” Gurpreet asks.
“Kirpan,” Digwa replies.
Gurpreet eventually appeals to a higher power, instead asking: “Maharaj protect/save all of us from here. Where have we ended up... Pray from the heart if you have not done anything wrong.”
Vickrum Digwa was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years in June for Nowak’s murder.
He was also sentenced for carrying a knife in public while the brothers’ mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, was found guilty of assisting an offender after she attempted to hide the blade following the stabbing. She is due to be sentenced on Friday.
The two officers shown on bodycam arresting Nowak as he lay dying following Digwa’s claims he was acting in self-defence are at the centre of an Independent Office for Police Conduct probe.
The footage sparked riots across the UK amid accusations Britain’s police force engages in ‘two-tier’ policing, where white citizens are treated differently to counterparts from ethnic communities by officers.
