Henry Nowak’s killer Vickrum Digwa has had his sentence increased by senior judges who said he showed ‘incomprehensible cruelty’ by filming and goading the teenager as he lay dying.

The 18-year-old was repeatedly stabbed with a ceremonial knife moments after encountering Digwa, now 23, in Southampton on December 3 last year.

The killing sparked outrage when police body-worn video was released showing officers handcuffing Henry as he lay dying after Digwa lied to officers that the teenager had racially abused him.

Digwa also used his phone to record Henry after the stabbing, zooming in close to his face calling him a ‘f***ing c***’ and telling him he ‘f***ed up’ as his condition rapidly deteriorated.

Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting with Mr Justice Nicklin and Mr Justice Wall, said: ‘We have viewed the footage. ‘The additional distress and degradation caused by such incomprehensible cruelty to Henry as he lay on the ground is a factor to which we must return later.’

Attorney General Ellie Reeves referred the case to the Court of Appeal as ‘unduly lenient’ earlier this year, while Digwa also sought to challenge the sentence as ‘manifestly excessive’.

The three senior judges said it was ‘unarguable’ that the original sentence was too long, and found it should be increased to 25 years as it ‘fell outside the range reasonably open’ to the sentencing judge.

Lady Carr said: ‘A minimum term of 21 years did not adequately reflect the overall seriousness of the murder.

‘It was not only lenient, but unduly so.’

Digwa’s mother Kiran Kaur, who was jailed in July for assisting an offender when she took the murder weapon from the crime scene back to the family home nearby, had also been set to challenge her sentence.

But the court heard her application was ‘abandoned’ and it later emerged she is likely to walk free from jail within weeks as she is eligible for the Government’s early release scheme.

Henry’s father Mark Nowak told ITV News: ‘It’s an absolute disgrace. Let’s be honest.

‘She was convicted in May of this year. She’ll be out in December of this year having received a three-year sentence. How on earth can that be right?

‘She’ll be out for Christmas, and I won’t have Christmas with Henry.’

Jonathan Polnay KC, for the Attorney General, told the hearing earlier on Thursday that Digwa ‘repeatedly deployed’ the knife against an ‘unarmed and defenceless stranger’, and that the sentence ‘failed adequately to reflect’ the aggravating features in the case.

These included that Digwa ‘abused the privilege’ extended to Sikhs allowing them to carry blades in public and that he filmed Mr Nowak following the attack, during which he ‘zoomed in on Henry’s face whilst verbally gloating’.

Imran Khan KC, for Digwa, said the sentence passed by Judge William Mousley KC already reflected the aggravating features of the case, including the filming, the use of the knife and the ‘abuse of religious privilege’.

He continued that the sentence should instead be reduced to a ‘materially lower minimum term’.

Members of Mr Nowak’s family attended the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, with one relative wiping their eyes as the judgment was handed down.

Digwa, appearing via a video link from HMP Frankland in County Durham wearing a dark suit, shirt and tie, appeared to show no reaction as his sentence was increased.

At his sentencing hearing in June, Judge William Mousley KC said that on the night of the murder, Digwa had a small knife hidden from view called a kirpan, which is a strict requirement for Sikhs to have at all times and can be carried in public for religious reasons.

Digwa also had a ‘large dagger in a sheath’, due to being part of an order of Sikhs called the Nihang, who have a tradition of having a second knife.

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