🔴 NEW EVIDENCE IN ASYLUM SEEKER MURDER TRIAL

Jurors in the trial of asylum seeker Deng Chol Majek have been shown new CCTV footage and heard chilling witness evidence describing the final moments of Rhiannon Skye Whyte, the Walsall hotel worker who was fatally stabbed with a screwdriver after finishing her shift

Majek, 19, a Sudanese national living at the Park Inn Hotel — then used to house asylum seekers — is accused of following Ms Whyte from her workplace to Bescot Stadium railway station before attacking her in a sustained and brutal assault. He denies murder and possession of an offensive weapon.

The movements leading up to the attack

Jurors were told that the chain of events unfolded within roughly 40 minutes on the night of 20 October 2024, with the fatal injuries proving fatal three days later when Ms Whyte was pronounced dead in hospital on 23 October.

CCTV played in court tracks Ms Whyte leaving the Park Inn shortly before 11pm after completing her evening shift. Dressed in her black work uniform and carrying a backpack, she is seen heading alone toward Bescot Stadium station, speaking on her phone to a friend.

Just over a minute later, another figure appears on the same route — wearing a light silver hooded top, hood pulled up, and walking quickly but deliberately in her direction. Prosecutors allege that man is Majek.

Further footage, captured from cameras at the station entrance, shows the suspect pausing briefly outside, apparently scanning the area, before following Ms Whyte inside.

This, the prosecution say, is when Majek carried out the fatal attack — an attack that followed a pattern of intimidating and hostile behaviour observed in Majek that evening and in recent days, and which a friend of Ms Whyte partially witnessed over the phone.

The attack and aftermath

Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC told the jury that the evidence shows Majek deliberately followed Ms Whyte and attacked her with a screwdriver in a “targeted and violent assault,” stabbing her 23 times.

Ms Heeley told jurors the defendant “left her bleeding to death and then casually went back to his hotel.” He was seen on CCTV buying a drink on his way back, and later recorded “dancing and laughing, clearly excited about what he had done.”

Ms Whyte was found by a train guard and a hotel employee at 11.30 pm with multiple wounds to her head and body. She never regained consciousness and died three days later in hospital on 23 October.

Majek was arrested later that night and held in custody the following morning, the court heard.

Majek’s behaviour in the hours before the attack

Evidence presented in court detailed how earlier that evening, Majek had been seen loitering for hours in the hotel reception area, watching staff, including Ms Whyte.

Louise Brittle, a chef at the Park Inn, told jurors the defendant sat at a high table “staring straight ahead” with what she described as an “eerie fixed expression.”

“He wasn’t speaking or moving much,” she said. “He just watched everyone who walked past. It made the girls uncomfortable.”

Duty manager Claire Taylor-Bevans confirmed she had asked security to monitor him after staff reported feeling intimidated.

Ms Whyte had been carrying a rape alarm and pepper spray that night, jurors heard, and had joked about using them because of the way Majek had been watching her.

“She said he was giving her the creeps,” Ms Taylor-Bevans told the court.

She also described an earlier confrontation, caught on CCTV at 9.13pm that night, when Majek appeared to bump shoulders with Ms Whyte as she walked through reception.

“He walked straight into her,” Ms Taylor-Bevans said. “She turned round and said, ‘What the f***?’ — she was shocked, like anyone would be.”

Hotel staff testimony and cross-examination

Hotel colleagues Louise Brittle and Claire Taylor-Bevans described Majek’s manner in the hours before the attack, with Ms Brittle telling jurors: “It felt as if he was planning something… really scary, like he was going to do something that night.”

Under cross-examination, defence barrister Gurdeep Garcha KC challenged the witnesses’ impressions. She conceded that it was a possibility that later events influenced her recollection.

He asked why, despite the staring, they had not advised Ms Whyte to avoid leaving alone. Ms Brittle acknowledged she had not intervened or altered Ms Whyte’s plans. Ms Taylor-Bevans confirmed that while the behaviour was unsettling, it did not cause them to prevent Ms Whyte from leaving the hotel.

Chilling screams during phone call

Emma Cowley, a close friend of Rhiannon Skye Whyte, told Wolverhampton Crown Court she called Ms Whyte as she walked to Bescot Stadium station. Shortly after, there was an unusual silence. “She’s never silent like that,” Ms Cowley said.

This was followed by a sudden, high-pitched scream she described as “terrified, in pain, like someone had crept up on her,” then another short silence, a second scream, and a third, before the line cut off.

Ms Cowley explained her immediate concern, initially hoping it was a passer-by, but realising her friend could be in danger. Her evidence provided a contemporaneous account of the alleged attack, before train staff found Ms Whyte collapsed on the platform with severe head and upper-body injuries.

Background: Staff described difficult behaviour from Park Inn residents

The Park Inn, where both defendant and victim were present, had been converted to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers. Evidence heard in court highlighted repeated tension between some residents and female staff, including verbal aggression and confrontational incidents.

Less than 24 hours before her death, Ms Whyte was reduced to tears after a resident became abusive over a plate of biscuits. Colleagues described her as “kind but on edge,” noting concern for her safety in the weeks prior to the fatal attack.

The defence case

Majek denies any involvement in the killing. His defence team argue that the CCTV evidence is inconclusive and that the figure seen following Ms Whyte cannot be definitively identified as him.

He is assisted in court by an Arabic interpreter using Sudanese dialect. Through his counsel, he maintains that he was elsewhere in the hotel at the time and that “the prosecution have the wrong man.”

Trial Continues

Prosecutors say the evidence — the CCTV sequence, the phone call, and the defendant’s movements before and after the incident — forms a clear and consistent timeline linking Majek to the killing.

“There is no one else on that platform,” Ms Heeley KC told jurors. “He follows her, he attacks her, he leaves her to die, and he walks away.”

The defence have yet to call their evidence. The trial, before Mr Justice Soole at Wolverhampton Crown Court, continues.