The mother of Henry’s Nowak’s killer will be released early from prison, just a year after the student’s murder.
Kiran Kaur was sentenced to three years in jail for her role in removing the murder weapon from the scene, thereby assisting her son.
But ITV News has learnt that she will serve less than half of that term in prison and will be freed as part of the government’s early release scheme, around the anniversary of Nowak’s death.
The 18-year-old Southampton University Student was killed while walking home from a night out on December 3 last year.
Vickrum Digwa, 23, was convicted of Henry’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 21 years in prison.
Both he and his mother had pleaded not guilty to their offences.
Kiran Kaur (left) was found guilty of assisting an offender after helping her son Vickrum Digwa (right) Credit: Hampshire Police
But a jury didn’t believe Digwa’s false claim that he had been subject to a racist attack by Nowak.
ITV News understands that Kaur is eligible for the government’s deportation scheme because she is an Indian national.
However, no decision has yet been taken on whether or not she will be removed from the country once she has served the minimum term of her sentence.
Despite being eligible for early release, ITV News has learnt that Kaur is also appealing her sentence.
She will appear in the Court of Appeal on November 5 – just shy of a month before she is likely to be released.
It’s the same day that her son Digwa is appealing his sentence on the ground that it is too stringent. The Attorney General is appealing that Digwa’s sentence is too lenient at the same time.
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Separately, Digwa is also seeking permission to appeal his conviction.
The early release scheme is intended to create capacity in England and Wales’ overcrowded jails, but has faced heavy criticism from victims of crime and their families.
The policy came into force on October 1, after being delayed from September while a review was carried out.
Some 5,000 prisoners are scheduled to be released in stages over the next year, down from 6,000, after ministers intervened to exempt rapists and the most serious child sex offenders.
Earlier this week up to 650 prisoners, some of whom had served just a third of their sentence, were released under the second wave of the scheme, less than two weeks after 700 were set free.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Henry Nowak, whose life was cruelly cut short in a horrific act of violence.
“We will always seek to deport foreign criminals at the first opportunity.”
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