An asylum seeker who stabbed a hotel worker as she waited for her train home in October last year has been found guilty of murder at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Deng Chol Majek, a Sudanese asylum seeker, followed Rhiannon Whyte after she finished her shift at the hotel where he was staying. As she stood on the train platform at the Bescot Stadium train station, Majek stabbed her 23 times with a screwdriver.
Rhiannon sustained multiple injuries to her head and died from a brain stem injury three days after the attack.
During the trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, CCTV was shown to jurors in which Majek could be seen staring at Rhiannon when she was handing out snacks, hours before he would go on to attack her.
A witness told the court they felt “scared” and “worried he was going to do something that night”. They even informed the hotel’s security staff they “all felt intimidated”.
After Rhiannon’s shift ended at 11pm, she walked across the road to the Bescot Train Station. Unbeknown to her, Majek had waited outside in the car park and started to follow.
Wearing what the prosecution described as “distinctive clothing”, he gradually got closer.
Around 23:15, he walked up the last steps to the station and attacked Rhiannon on the train platform.
Deng Chol Majek (left) being questioned by defence KC Gurdeep Garcha at Wolverhampton Crown Court | PA11 of the stab wounds she suffered had penetrated her skull, with one damaging the brain stem. This caused her death three days later.
In their closing speech on Thursday, Michelle Heeley KC, prosecuting the case, said: “This defendant can be seen clearly, wearing that jacket with the different colour arms, black combats, a man bag and sandals.
“The suggestion that it is anyone other than this defendant is just ridiculous.”
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that Majek came to the UK in July last year because his claim for asylum was refused by the German authorities.
Majek told jurors he had a German identity document by August 2023 which recorded his date of birth as January 1 1998. He claimed that date, which would make him 27, was wrong and was due to a “mistake” by officials in Italy after he was “saved in the sea” by them.
The court heard the asylum seeker left Sudan “because there was a war and I had been threatened” by “a man in the army”.
He said had got married at 16 and had a daughter who was born after he’d left Sudan. The court heard he had travelled through Libya, Italy and then Germany.
After the attack, Majek was seen on CCTV leaving the train station, he threw Rhiannon’s phone into a river, walked to a shop to buy alcohol and returned to the hotel.
As the emergency services arrived, footage recovered by the police showed the Sudanese asylum seeker laughing and dancing to music in the hotel car park, the prosecution told the jury Majek was “clearly excited by what he had done” and that the action had been “utterly callous”.
Giving evidence during the trial, Deng Majek denied this and said: “I saw the blue lights, but didn’t think there was a problem.
“It was just music and dancing like normal.”
Forensic scientists found Rhiannon’s blood on Majek’s jacket, trousers, shoes, and jewellery. DNA recovered from swabs of his fingernails were also a match for Ms Whyte.
Addressing jurors on Thursday, Ms Heeley said “Ladies and gentlemen, you have a stark choice. Do you accept the evidence of an independent forensic scientist, or do you believe the defendant who sat silently in interview, with no answers to police questions?
“Do you accept the detailed, colour CCTV footage of the attacker in identical clothing to the defendant, or do you believe the defendant when he says ‘it’s not me’.
“You may think it’s not really a difficult question. I suggest his answers to you are laughable. He is trying to meet the overwhelming evidence, and he has failed.”
In his closing statement, Defence barrister, Gurdeep Garcha KC, said Ms Whyte’s loss was a tragedy and a “waste of a young life”.
He told jurors: “A female walking from work to a railway station being attacked in a frenzied assault is every parent’s worst nightmare.”
The KC added that the trial was “as sad a case as it’s possible to imagine” and urged jurors not to treat it as “some sort of referendum” on issues surrounding the issue of asylum.
After the attack in October, her family paid tribute to Rhiannon, calling her “the most selfless person”.
They said: “The most loved daughter, compassionate sister, loving aunty, gracious granddaughter, beautiful niece, wonderful cousin and devoted friend.
“The most selfless person you were brave, quirky, funny, and always there for anyone who needed it. There is not enough paper in the world to even begin to write a tribute for you, but no one deserves it more.
“The weird thing about this devastating loss is that we now need to navigate life without you, but how? If your short life will teach anything it’s to cherish each moment with those you love as tomorrow is never guaranteed.
“You are so strong, a fighter and no matter what happens, we as a family will always be united for you. We will love and miss you for now for always and forever.”
The jury found Majek guilty of murdering Rhiannon Whyte and possession of a screwdriver as an offensive weapon.
