An asylum seeker accused of killing a woman who worked at his migrant hotel today told a jury he ‘never had any problem with anyone’, as he denied responsibility for the attack.
Sudanese national Deng Chol Majek, who claims he is 19, is on trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court accused of the ‘vicious’ murder of Rhiannon Whyte, 27, as she waited to catch the train home after a late shift at the Park Inn Hotel, Walsall.
Ms Whyte was stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver on a deserted platform at Bescot station at 11.13pm on October 20 last year. She died three days later.
Majek claims it was not him who was seen on the CCTV following Ms Whyte to the platform that night and his arrest was a case of mistaken identity.
Giving evidence today through an Arabic Sudanese interpreter, Majek, wearing grey trousers and a blue sweatshirt with grey sleeves, told the court he had never even spoken to Ms Whyte. He claimed he never left the hotel car park that night.
He was led through a compilation of CCTV from the night and denied he was the figure seen following Ms Whyte, although he accepted it was him on CCTV sitting in the hotel and later standing in the hotel car park.
The defendant also accepted it was him captured in mobile phone footage dancing in the hotel car park after Ms Whyte was attacked.
Born in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, Majek said he was a married father-of-one who fled his home country of Sudan at the age of 16 in April 2022, leaving behind his pregnant wife, mother, father, seven sisters and three brothers.
He claimed he was forced to leave Sudan because he was being threatened by a man in the army after his family refused to let him marry his sister.
Majek arrived in the UK three months before the attack, in July 2024, having travelled through Libya, Italy and then living for a time in Germany.
Rhiannon Whyte can be seen sitting behind the bar in the hotel while Deng Chol Majek allegedly fixes his gaze on her from a few metres away
Court artist sketch of Deng Chol Majek giving evidence today at Wolverhampton Crown Court
Ms Whyte was attacked moments after leaving work and died in hospital with her family by her side
Gurdeep Garcha KC, defending, asked Majek: ‘This case concerns the assault on Rhiannon Whyte on October 20 2024, in that assault she received injuries from which she died a few days later. Were you at Bescot train station at the time she was stabbed and received her fatal injuries?’
‘No,’ he replied.
Mr Garcha asked: ‘Are you responsible for that fatal assault on that station platform?’
‘No,’ Majek said.
Mr Garcha asked Majek how he had got on with the staff at the hotel, to which he replied: ‘I never had any problem with anyone.’
The jury has heard Ms Whyte did odd jobs around the Park Inn hotel, including serving food and staffing the reception area.
But Majek said he had never spoken with her directly and told the court he could not speak any English. He claimed he had never even noticed Ms Whyte, who, at the time, had her hair dyed blue.
Mr Garcha said: ‘Would you have seen her around the hotel as she was working and you were staying there?’
‘No,’ replied Majek.
‘So you never noticed her?,’ his barrister asked.
‘No,’ replied Majek.
Mr Garcha asked: ‘Did you have any reason whatsoever to want to harm Rhiannon Whyte?’
‘No,’ replied Majek
‘To cause her really serious injury?,’ his barrister asked.
‘No,’ said Majek
‘Or to kill her?,’ Mr Garcha asked.
‘No,’ the defendant replied.
Asked what he had been doing that night, the defendant said: ‘I was staying in the hotel, outside.’
He later added: ‘I was in the hotel, I never left the car park.’
Majek told the court he had no criminal history, except for an incident in Kaiserslautern, Germany, in August 2023, when he was cautioned by police for kicking the door of a train.
Jurors previously heard that, at the time, Majek had been ‘drunk’ and ‘had kicked the driver’s door and passenger door of a train’.
At the time, his ID stated his date of birth was January 1 1998, but he had given his date of birth to British authorities as January 1 2006. Majek told the court a mistake was made in Germany and he was in fact 19.
Asked why he left Sudan, he told the court: ‘We had a problem with a person that was in the army, I had a problem with that person, because of that I had to leave south of Sudan to north of Sudan and from the north I went to Libya.
‘This person wanted to marry my sister which we refused and he started threatening us and we had to leave the area we were in, from south to north.’
He said his whole family had moved with him, but, although they were safe in north Sudan, he decided to leave for Europe anyway because ‘I was expecting [the man in the army] to follow us to the north as well, I believed he was going to come anyway so I left Sudan for the same exact reason’.
Asked for his reason for applying for asylum in the UK, Majek said: ‘Based on the fact I was threatened in Sudan and it was dangerous for me to be in Sudan.’
His barrister then pointed out there was a war in Sudan and questioned whether this, too, influenced his decision, to which Majek replied: ‘There was a war and I was threatened, this is why I left Sudan.’
Police outside the Park Inn by Radisson Hotel in Bescot, Walsall – where Ms Whyte worked – in the aftermath of the attack
Majek told the jury he shared a room at the Park Inn Hotel with another asylum seeker and described how he spent the three months living there doing ‘nothing special’, but not working because he did not have a visa.
He denied ever owning a screwdriver.
CCTV shown to the trial allegedly captured Majek ‘staring at Rhiannon throughout the evening’.
Asked about what he had been doing as he sat at a table near the staff that night, he said he was listening to music and denied he had been staring at Ms Whyte, or trying to ‘intimidate’ the staff or make them feel uncomfortable.
‘I wasn’t looking at her,’ he said. ‘I was just listening to music and I was thinking about something else, I wasn’t really thinking about anything I was just listening to music and sitting down.’
He was then shown some CCTV which, the prosecution allege, shows the moment he shoulder-barged Ms Whyte shortly before the end of her shift as he walked outside to have a cigarette.
Majek said: ‘I was just walking my own path, I didn’t hit anyone.’
Prosecutors have previously highlighted CCTV at around 11pm, when Ms Whyte was clocking off, which showed Majek smoking directly outside the front door instead of the usual smoking area.
Asked why he had moved to that spot, he replied: ‘This is what people usually do, walking around, they walk and then turn and then go back out again.’
Asked if he had positioned himself there to watch the staff, he replied: ‘No, I didn’t even have them in my mind.’
Opening the trial last week, prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC told the jury that when Ms Whyte left the hotel at 11pm, Majek was ‘lurking outside reception’. He allegedly followed her to Bescot station where she was due to get the last train back to Walsall.
At the time of the attack, Ms Whyte had been on the phone to a friend, who heard three screams as she was struck ‘over and over again’ at 11.13pm. The line went dead shortly afterwards.
She was found by a train driver slumped on the platform 11 minutes later, but was too seriously injured to be saved and died surrounded by family on October 23.
Police were ‘very quickly’ able to trace the defendant because he was wearing ‘very distinctive clothing’ and made an arrest shortly afterwards at the hotel, Ms Heeley said.
They found him in possession of clothes including the jacket the attacker from the CCTV could be seen wearing, as well as jewellery and a pair of sandals, all of which were found to have Ms Whyte’s blood on them, the court heard.
Ms Whyte’s DNA was found underneath the fingernails of the defendant, the jury were told.
Majek denies murdering Ms Whyte and a second charge of possessing a screwdriver in a public place.
The trial continues.
