BREAKING: Sikh man found guilty of murdering Henry Nowak after stabbing with ceremonial knife

And we're going to return to that breaking news that a 23 -year -old man has been found guilty at Southampton Crown Court for the murder of university student Henry Novak.

Yeah, this is Vikram Digwa who had claimed that young Henry Novak had been racially abusive towards him and that was the reason that he stabbed this young man who was handcuffed by the police as he lay dead.dying there on the pavement, despite shouting to the police that he couldn't breathe.Well, our reporter Isabel Feculak doing sterling work for us down in Southampton this afternoon.Isabel, is there any reaction yet from Henry Novak's family?Do we know what exactly they want in terms of the investigation going forward against Hampshire Police?

Well, Mark, I think it's clear that Henry Novak's family will want answers from the police.However, it is important to say that the pathologist did make clear that once the police arrived at the scene, there was nothing they could have done to save Henry Novak's life.Still, as you said there, he was handcuffed in the moment before he lost consciousness.And Dig was a count that he was racially attacked in the prosecution's closing speech a couple of days ago.They called it a wicked lie.They said that this case was not about racism but about a cold -blooded murder and that's what this was.

He stabbed Henry Novak five times, three times in the front of his body in the groin, face and chest and twice in the back of the legs.Now, A question to the police would be how did they not see those injuries, especially the slash to his face.And of course the murder weapon was a kapan, that Sikh religious knife carried bySikhs as a mandatory article of faith.That knife that was used to murder Henry Novak was a 21 centimeter long blade, so causing serious injuries, internal bleeding that he may not have been able to recover on from even if the police had had the correct information.It's important to say that Digua lied repeatedly to the police.

He told them that Henry Novak was pretending.He said in court that he thought that he was pretending to be in a worse condition than he was.The police responded to a call about an assault and that's how they treated it, treating Henry Novak as the perpetrator, not the victim.

Isabel, stay with us a second because we're getting more in the way of information from Nicholas Lohvenberg, the KC for the prosecution in this case.Now, he told the jury the Digwa, who had been training with weapons since the age of 12, had described the murder weapon in loving terms and that he sleeps in his bedroom with an arsenal of weapons.He also said that although Although Sikhs are permitted in law to carry a kripan knife, the discreet carrying of a small dagger under clothing was sufficient for the requirements of this religion.In other words, it didn't need to be a huge weapon such as the one he was carrying that night.He said the defendant chose to carry two knives, one under his clothing while the large knife, which was used in the killing, was on display.He added, the prosecutor, that this is a man who likes weapons.

He thinks a knife is a suitable weapon.wedding present for his brother, Judge William Moore.has adjourned the case now until the 1st of June for sentencing.And Isabel, on that, I think, you know, obviously it's going to be mandatory life imprisonment as any murder conviction is, but then there will be a tariff added to that, and likely, I think, to be increased, Isabel, given that this murderer lied repeatedly about the fact that this young man, his victim, had racially abused him.

Yes, exactly.And also lied repeatedly about the condition that Henry Novak was in when police attended the scene.As I said before, saying that Henry Novak was pretending to be worse than he was after stabbing him five times, including that fatal wound to the chest.And yes, as you said there, he was also carrying two knives, one cupan and one other one underneath his clothing.So definitely, I think there will be an extended charge for his repeated lies to the police and the fact that no ambulance was called and the police were not able to help Henry Novak reach a hospital in time.

Isabel, we know that the attacker here lied, a wicked lie as it's been described.Do we know what the motive was if it wasn't racist abuse that he said?

No, there was no exact talk of what the motive may have been, although the prosecution said in court that Henry Novak had recorded a video of Digwa saying, go on, say you're a bad man.In the video, Digwa turns around and does say he is a bad man.bad man.But in the prosecution, they said that he did not like to be recorded.Digra said to the court that he was afraid for his life.He was petrified that the curve pan was going to be used against him and that many Sikhs had been filmed and harassed and these videos had gone viral.

So that possibly could have been a motive.On the night, though, there's no real way of knowing what was exactly going through Digra's head.

Well, let's just hear again from that senior officer from Hampshire Police apologising to the family of young Henry Novak for the actions of his officers that day.Let's have a listen.

I'm sorry that Henry's life couldn't be saved that night, and I'm sorry that he was handcuffed and arrested in the moments before he lost consciousness.When his killer made that call to police, and he called the police, not the ambulance service, he lied on that call.He lied when police attended the scene.He continued to lie as Henry's condition deteriorated.It is clear, and it is absolutely tragic, that it took them three minutes before they started to administer first aid.It is important, though, to say the pathologist has been clear there's nothing officers could have done which would have saved Henry's life.

Well, Isabel Fekelak, thank you very much indeed.We'll come back to you very soon, I'm sure.Thank you for being at the court for us.In the studio, we have Charlie Peters, our national reporter, who's been following this this case for us as well.Charlie, questions for the police, how do you suspect this will go from here?

Well there will be that independent office of police conduct investigation into how they handled this case but there has been much uproar since the prosecution of this murder opened a couple of weeks ago because I think this murder was not well known but when the detail was revealed by the prosecution at thepolice had in fact handcuffed the victim of this murder, that set ablaze the public discussion, even though, of course, people were not meant to discuss these cases while they're active.But the detail was so shocking that there has been so much discussion of it online, including from the tech billionaire Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who actually, during the trial, said that he would like to fund a private prosecution against the police over the incident.He said it was unconscionable what had happened and he said they were disgusting excuses for law enforcement.enforcement.In fact, the level of discussion around that detail that the...

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary had arrested Henry Novak as he lay dying.Indeed, it sparked a response from the Sikh Federation in Britain, expressing their deepest condolences for the tragic loss of life, aware that there was now so much focus on this case, on the actions of Digva.And they said, the Sikh community remains peaceful, well -integrated, and a deeply valued part of British society.The urge for everyone to allow, of course, at the time, the judicial process to proceed.There was some concern that so much focus on the actions of the police could have affected this trial.So widespread was the public discussion.

But they said to the Sikh community, together we move forward stronger.And I think there will now be a discussion, Mark and Emily, about the Kirpan, about how members of the Sikh community and British Sikhs are are able to carry around knives, often in areas where they are prohibited.Just as an example, Wembley Stadium, the home of football, none of us are permitted to carry any offensive weapons or even a shaving razor into that stadium.But Sikhs are permitted to carry a kirpan dagger, a knife, as long as it is no larger than five inches.That's still quite a significant blade.Now, we know in this case that Digveaux was carrying two blades and that he has been described as the prosecution as a man who liked weapons, a man who thought that a knife was a suitable wedding present for his brother.

But still, I think there will be a focus on the fact perhaps that the police, we'll wait for our investigation, might have had their minds swayed by a warped, perhaps more modern, leftish understanding of race and justice, race and knife crime.And they saw this white man lying on the floor, bleeding, and they chose to handcuff him because this murderer had told them that he had suffered racist abuse.And just think, I imagine now, perhaps we'll wait for this footage to be released at the appropriate moment as this investigation goes on.Imagine what that scene must have looked like, you know, having a victim lying with five stab wounds, then being cuffed, while a man who lacked injuries said that he had suffered racist abuse.

And this is it, Charlie.I think Hampshire Police would love nothing more than us getting embroiled and sucked up by the debate of whether members of the Sikh community should be allowed to carry these ceremonial knives.The fact is, and we heard actually from the senior officer there about their kind of line of argument that, well, even if we had known about his injuries, any intervention by the police wouldn't have made any difference at the end of the day because the injuries were so catastrophic well that may be true it may not I don't know but at the end of the day this was a young man dying in such an indignant undignified way you know treated as a criminal in his dying moment I can only imagine how absolutely outraged and you know saddened his family must have beenknow that the final few moments of that young man's life were taken up with him just lying there like a common criminal.

It is shocking, it is scandalous and the details when they were revealed by the prosecution, as I said, they did immediately capture the nation and did the world's attention.This was unfortunately just being treated as just another murder.of which there are hundreds of course in England and Wales every year but that detail in the prosecution that he had been handcuffed as he lay dying because of allegations of racism that drew and has drawn such severe criticism.It will be the subject of that investigation but Mark you're right to put focus on that how the police may want that debate about Sikhs carrying blades should that religious dispensation be removed amid this focus that's going to be worthy of discussion as well but they won't escape the criticism that will now come forward.In that moment, that critical moment when someone had been stabbed to death and lay dying, they chose to handcuff him because of an allegation of racism.You can only imagine, actually, when you see that moment, an arrest is done, of course, to begin criminal proceedings, but it's also done to prevent risk in that moment.

You detain someone to reduce risk.In that moment, the man who had been stabbed five times, was he the risk?

Yeah, and they absolutely should not escape any kind of criticism or proper scrutiny here, because at the end of the day, an arresting officer, when they're being told by that victim that they're injured, should be carrying out an assessment to determine whether that individual has been injured or not.And they would have established fairly quickly rubbing their hand up his back or whatever, so he had been stabbed.

I mean, as you both say, the indignity of that end of his life.