Appeal court to review sentence for Henry Nowak’s murderer

Vickrum Digwa’s 21-year minimum term is now headed to the Court of Appeal after the Solicitor General used a rare legal route reserved for certain serious offences, including murder, to test whether the punishment was too low. The referral, made by Ellie Reeves KC on 15 June 2026, will put the sentence back before judges who can decide whether it was unduly lenient and whether it should be increased.

The mechanism is tightly limited. Law Officers have 28 days from sentencing to consider a referral, and only certain offences can be reviewed. Murder is among them. That threshold matters because the government does not get a second look at every case, only those where the punishment is considered to have fallen outside what the public and the justice system expect for the crime.

Reeves said the case “horrified” her. She also said it raised difficult questions about how police handled Henry Nowak’s murder, while stressing that her role was to review Digwa’s sentence for his crimes. That distinction sits at the heart of the appeal process: the referral is not a retrial, but a challenge to whether the punishment matched the gravity of the killing.

Digwa was jailed at Southampton Crown Court on 1 June 2026 for life with a minimum term of 21 years after murdering Henry, an 18-year-old first-year University of Southampton student. Henry died on 3 December 2025 and was the first in his family to go to university. Judge William Mousley KC said Henry was a much-loved, kind, hard-working and ambitious young man, and said Digwa, who was 23 at sentencing and had no previous convictions, had robbed him of a long and fulfilling life while causing lifelong misery for his family.

The court heard that Digwa falsely told police Henry had racially abused him and that he had acted in self-defence. Reports from the sentencing hearing said officers handcuffed Henry while he was dying before the truth emerged. The police watchdog is now investigating Hampshire Police over the incident, adding another layer of scrutiny to a case that has shaken Southampton and drawn wider anger over both the killing and the response to it.

Henry’s father, Mark Nowak, has called for a full, fearless and transparent investigation. The referral now turns public frustration into a formal legal test of whether Digwa’s punishment should stand or be pushed higher.