Killer's Mother Jailed for Hiding Murder Weapon

A British mother who hid the knife her son used to kill a teenager is now heading to prison herself. Kiran Kaur, 53, was sentenced Friday to three years behind bars for assisting an offender after a jury found she removed the blade from the scene where 18-year-old student Henry Nowak was fatally stabbed and stashed it at the family home in Southampton, reports the Courthouse News Service. Judge William Mousley said a "responsible parent" would have pushed her son, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, to "do the right thing," not place the knife among a cache of ceremonial and other weapons in his bedroom.

It was discovered as the murder weapon, with the help of CCTV footage, a week after the killing, per the Guardian. Prosecutors called Kaur's conduct "criminality of the highest order," while her lawyer argued it was a split-second decision driven by a mother's instinct to protect her son. The sentencing is the latest turn in a case that has ignited protests and triggered an inquiry by Britain's police watchdog into officers' initial handling of the stabbing. Digwa, who said he carried the 8-inch blade as part of a Sikh warrior tradition, is serving a life term with a minimum of 21 years and is appealing. His sentence is also under review as potentially too lenient, and he faces separate weapons charges along with his father and brother.