Asylum seeker ‘danced’ as blue lights flashed after murder

Jurors at Wolverhampton Crown Court have been shown CCTV and mobile phone footage said to trace the movements of Sudanese asylum seeker Deng Chol Majek in the hours surrounding the fatal stabbing of hotel worker Rhiannon Skye Whyte.

The court was told that, in the early hours after the alleged attack, Majek was seen dancing, drinking & laughing with friends in the car park of the Park Inn hotel — as blue lights from nearby emergency vehicles flashed in the background.

The short clip, filmed by another asylum seeker shortly after 12.39 am on 21 October 2023, shows a group outside the hotel smoking and drinking from cans while music plays through a portable speaker. Asked by prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC where the music came from, Det Sgt Haywood told jurors: “The defendant brought that to the location.”

Prosecutors allege those flashing lights came from the emergency services attending Bescot Stadium station, less than a mile away, where Ms Whyte lay critically injured after being stabbed 19 times in the head with a screwdriver.

Read more: Rhiannon Whyte murder: Deng majek to be sentenced amid age row

Moments after the video ends, further CCTV shows the same figure entering the hotel and walking along a third-floor corridor just before 1 am, moving in what police described as a “dancing gait, arms raised.”

Footage played to the court captured the same man — said to be Majek — returning to the hotel at 12.13 am in flip-flops, then leaving his room minutes later wearing white trainers.

The movements of the man said to be the defendant were extensively caught on CCTV, creating a clear timeline of his movements that evening. Footage recorded between 11.30 pm and midnight shows him walking through Walsall’s Caldmore district, visiting a shop on West Bromwich Street, and buying three cans of extra-strong Belgian beer. Jurors were told that was the alcohol seen in the car park footage.

Only ten minutes before that, a separate CCTV sequence captured a man matching Majek’s build and clothing — a two-tone grey jacket, dark on the body and light on the arms, with black cargo trousers and flip-flops — walking over the bridge above Bescot Stadium station at 11.19 pm.

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