A Sudanese asylum seeker has been jailed for at least 29 years for the “sadistic” murder of a woman who was working at the hotel where he lived.
Deng Chol Majek is believed to have entered the UK by small boat less than three months before stabbing Rhiannon Whyte, 27, with a screwdriver 23 times at Bescot Stadium station in Walsall in October 2024.
Majek followed Whyte to the station after she finished a shift at the Park Inn, where he had been living, Wolverhampton crown court heard. He stabbed her 19 times in the head, causing a fatal brain stem injury, the jury was told. Whyte, whose son was five at the time, died in hospital three days later.
Her mother described Majek as an “evil nightmare” in a statement made to court before he was sentenced on Friday.
CCTV played at the trial showed Majek disappeared from view on a deserted platform for 90 seconds after 11pm so he could attack Whyte. She was found injured in a shelter on the platform by the driver and guard of a train that pulled in about five minutes after the attack.
Jurors unanimously convicted Majek of murder and possessing a screwdriver as an offensive weapon. Passing a life sentence, Mr Justice Soole told Majek he had brought “devastation” to Whyte’s family. He described the attack as one of “vicious brutality” and the “intent was to kill”.
The judge added: “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. The evidence against you, in particular CCTV and DNA, was overwhelming.”
Outside the court, groups of people waved England flags and far-right activist Tommy Robinson joined the crowds.
Majek is said to have lied to the court about his age, claiming to be 19 despite age assessment putting him between 25 and 28.
Rhiannon’s sister, Alex Whyte, said in a victim’s statement she was speaking on “behalf of me and my broken-hearted siblings Emma, Daniel and Cara, and Rhiannon’s two nieces and seven nephews. Most importantly for her now six-year-old son”.
She said Majek carried out a “vicious and pitiless assault on a terrified and defenceless young woman who he claims never to have spoken to or noticed”.
The trial heard Majek had been reported to security at the hotel after “spookily” staring at three female staff members for prolonged periods.
No motive for the killing was given at the trial. Majek had brushed past Whyte earlier in the evening as he left the hotel to smoke. After inflicting fatal injuries on her, Majek walked to the Caldmore Green area of Walsall to buy beer and was recorded on CCTV seemingly 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.
Addressing Majek, Alex said: “I honestly feel that calling you demonic and inhuman is justifiable in the circumstances. What are we supposed to say? You brutalised Rhiannon and then partied as if nothing had happened. You celebrated. You might as well have danced on her grave.”
Rhiannon’s mother, Donna Whyte, told the court: “Her name will not be forgotten, she will not be a distant memory. We will keep her alive in our memory. You, however, are an evil nightmare that will be put aside, known only for your cruel and malicious act.”
Serco, which ran the hotel where Majek was being housed, said it stopped using it for asylum seekers the same month Whyte was killed.
Speaking after the sentencing hearing, DCI Paul Attwell of British Transport Police said Whyte was “brutally and senselessly murdered” by a man who had “never shown any remorse or given any explanation”.
“It was a frenzied, sadistic and unprovoked attack which her killer carried out on an innocent young woman he barely even knew,” he added. “He laughed, danced, joked around in a moment after what happened, and to this day, he’s never shown any remorse or given any explanation of why he decided to murder Rhiannon that night.
“His callous indifference has played out every day in court for Rhiannon’s poor family to see in person. I would like to pay tribute to them once again for the extraordinary strength and dignity they continue to show in the face of one of the most truly traumatic things a family could ever have to go through.”
