Student stabbed to death with 'extremely large' knife after night out with football team in Southampton, court told

A student was stabbed to death with an “extremely large" shastar knife on his way home from a night out, a court has been told.

Vickrum Digwa, 23, was caught on phone footage saying "I'm a bad man" as 18-year-old Henry Nowak sent Snapchat videos to friends on 3 December last year, Southampton Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC said Digwa "was carrying an extremely large knife in a sheath openly displayed over his clothing" which he used to stab the first-year Southampton University accountancy and finance student.

He said as well as the 21cm shastar - the Punjabi word for weapon or knife - Digwa had a kirpan knife around his neck and under his clothing.

"Sikhism obliges male followers of the faith to carry and wear certain items, these include a wooden comb, a metal bangle and what is called a kirpan, a ceremonial knife," said Mr Lobbenberg.

"That small kirpan satisfies any religious obligation a Sikh may have to carry a blade, and Mr Vickrum Digwa was carrying that under his clothing and around his neck."

Digwa denies murder and carrying a knife in public, while his mother Kiran Kaur, 53, denies assisting an offender by allegedly removing a weapon from the scene.

The court heard Mr Nowak, from Chafford Hundred, Essex, had drunk less than the drink-drive limit during a night out with his football team, and could be heard singing to himself in a video found on his phone, which was discovered in his pocket after the incident.

Mr Nowak is then heard saying: "Innit bad man, what bad man. You're a bad man, say you're a bad man, go on."

Digwa replied: "I am a bad man".

"At half-past midnight that night, Henry was dead, he had been fatally stabbed by Vickrum Digwa using that knife, the knife that Vickrum Digwa has chosen to carry out on to the street," the prosecutor told the court.

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Mr Lobbenberg said that Digwa denied stabbing Mr Nowak at the scene. He also claimed that "he had been racially abused and attacked by a drunken man".

"Henry protested he hadn't attacked Vickrum Digwa, and he had been stabbed," the prosecutor added.

Mr Lobbenberg said that police initially handcuffed Mr Nowak, and started giving him first aid when he then collapsed.

The court heard a post-mortem examination found that Mr Nowak suffered four stab wounds and a cut to his jaw, with two of the wounds to the back of his legs.

The trial continues.

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