Asylum seeker jailed for murdering hotel worker Rhiannon Whyte

An asylum seeker who stabbed a hotel worker more than 20 times with a screwdriver after following her to a deserted train station has been jailed for life.

Deng Chol Majek, who is from Sudan, celebrated after killing Rhiannon Skye Whyte on October 20 last year.

CCTV footage tracked him as he followed her from Walsall’s Park In n hotel, where she worked and he was living, to Bescot Stadium Station.

Majek stabbed Rhiannon ‘over and over again’ in a frenzied attack thenleft her for dead to drink and dance with friends while emergency services rushed to the scene.

Rhiannon died three days later in hospital, having suffered a fatal brain injury.

Majek was found guilty of murder after just two hours’ deliberations following a two-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

His sentencing was delayed amid doubts over his claim to be only 19 years old.

The killer, who is believed to have entered the UK by small boat less than three months before the killing, is known to have given authorities in Germany a date of birth that would mean he is now 28.

He was jailed for life today with a minimum term of 29 years.

Mr Justice Soole told Deng Chol Majek he had brought ‘devastation’ to the family of hotel worker Rhiannon Whyte as he imposed a life sentence for murder.

‘The evidence against you, in particular CCTV and DNA, was overwhelming,’ he said.

‘You continue to deny that you were the assailant.

‘The court is thus left with no explanation of what possessed you to murder a member of the hotel staff, who together with her colleagues, had been serving and helping you and your fellow residents.’

Mr Justice Soole said Deng Chol Majek maintained he was aged 18 when he entered the UK in July 2024 but age assessments had concluded he was actually aged between 25 and 28.

‘I consider that the greatest likelihood is that you were born in 1998 as the German documents attest,’ the judge said.

‘I therefore sentence you on the basis that you were aged 26 at the date of Rhiannon’s murder.

‘For the offence of murder, the law imposes a sentence of imprisonment for life.’

Opening the case to jurors, Ms Heeley told them: ‘The person who attacked Rhiannon carried out a vicious and frenzied attack.

‘They meant to seriously hurt Rhiannon, to kill her, and they carried out the attack by stabbing her repeatedly in the head with an offensive weapon, a Phillips head screwdriver.’

She said Rhiannon had worked at the hotel for about three months, helping with things including cleaning and serving food, while Majek was resident in room 309.

Ms Heeley added: ‘During the evening one of Rhiannon’s co-workers noticed this defendant. He seemed to be staring at Rhiannon and the women she was working with.

‘No one could recall any particular issue that would have caused him to act in that way. There had been an issue about some broken biscuits with some of the residents but nothing serious.

‘What is clear from the CCTV is that the defendant was hanging around the reception area, staring at Rhiannon throughout the evening.’

Hotel chef Louise Brittle told the court she saw a tall, dark-skinned man sitting at a high table, and wearing a silver top with the hood up, during her shift from 2pm to 10pm on October 20.

She said: ‘He was sitting relaxed in a high chair with one arm on the table and his foot on a bench… just staring.

‘He was staring towards the bar area. I came out of the kitchen and I noticed him straight away.

‘He was just staring through us … like eyes wide open and he just couldn’t take his eyes off any of us.

‘I said how scary it felt. The way he was staring at us.’

Jurors heard Majek was reported to security at the Park Inn, where he lived and Rhiannon worked, after ‘spookily’ staring at three female staff members for prolonged periods on October 20 2024.

Rhiannon finished work at 11pm and was then ‘tracked’ on foot by Majek to the station, where he inflicted 23 wounds to her head, including a fatal brain stem injury.

CCTV showed Majek disappeared from view on to a deserted platform for 90 seconds at about 11.18pm to attack Ms Whyte, 27, the mother of a five-year-old son.

She died in hospital three days later, after being found injured in a shelter on the platform by the driver and guard of a train that pulled in about five minutes later.

Majek, who at 6ft 3in was about 10 inches taller than Ms Whyte, walked to the Caldmore Green area of Walsall after the attack to buy beer and was recorded on CCTV apparently wiping blood from his trousers.

He returned to the hotel at 12.13am, changed his bloodstained flip-flops for trainers and was seen dancing with other residents in the car park, within sight of emergency vehicles called to the station.

‘In between the station and the hotel he had thrown Rhiannon’s phone into a river. Once at the hotel he was seen dancing and laughing, clearly excited about what he had done,’ Ms Heeley said.

‘He is celebrating, his mood has changed from that prolonged scowl in the cafe before the murder to dancing and joy after the murder.

‘It is utterly callous.’

No motive for the killing was given at the trial, but Majek had brushed past Ms Whyte earlier in the evening as he left the hotel to smoke.

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