The grieving family of a woman murdered at random by a Channel boat migrant have turned their fury on Keir Starmer for failing to act on illegal migration.
Mother-of-one Rhiannon Whyte, 27, was stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver by ‘evil’ Deng Chol Majek, who ambushed her after her shift at the asylum hotel where he had been living.
The ‘demonic and inhuman’ Sudanese national had arrived in the UK just three months earlier and lied about everything from his age – falsely claiming he was 18 – to his responsibility for the October 2024 killing.
He was even filmed dancing and swigging alcohol with other migrants once back at the Park Inn Hotel in Walsall, clearly excited about his act of appalling violence.
As he was jailed for at least 29 years at Coventry Crown Court, Ms Whyte’s sister, Emma, accused the Prime Minister of failing to take women’s safety seriously and called for migrant hotels to be ‘shut down’.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, she delivered a stark message to the Sir Keir: ‘Let’s hope it never happens to you.’
She continued: ‘Keir Starmer would not listen, he does not give a s*** about us.
‘He’s the worst thing that ever happened to us.’
Rhiannon Whyte, 27, was stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver by ‘evil’ Deng Chol Majek, who ambushed her after her shift at the asylum hotel where he had been living
Deng Chol Majek, who is from Sudan but arrived in the UK by small boat in July last year, was found guilty last year of murdering mother-of-one Rhiannon Whyte in October 2024
Ms Whyte’s sister, Emma (pictured), accused the Prime Minister of failing to take women’s safety seriously and called for migrant hotels to be ‘shut down’
Standing alongside Ms Whyte’s mother, Donna, she suggested Sir Keir was ignoring concerns about the dangers posed by migrant hotels because they were mainly being raised by women.
‘Nobody wants to listen to women,’ she said.
The family are now campaigning for tougher action on undocumented migrants, like Majek, who are put up at taxpayers’ expense despite authorities knowing nothing about their history.
Ms Whyte’s mother said: ‘We don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Why are we allowing this to continuously happen?’
Majek had made a mockery of the UK’s justice system by dragging Ms Whyte’s family through the ordeal of a trial while mounting a risible defence to the overwhelming evidence against him.
He accused a forensic expert of lying about finding Ms Whyte’s blood all over his clothes and insisted it was a man dressed in identical clothing – not him – captured on CCTV stalking Ms Whyte to Bescot station, where she was attacked.
Ms Whyte died in hospital three days after she was found lying critically injured in the platform shelter by a train driver.
In a final insult to the family, Gurdeep Garcha KC, representing Majek, revealed at the sentencing hearing that he was continuing to maintain his innocence.
Ms Whyte, 27, a mother-of-one, was attacked moments after leaving work and died in hospital with her family by her side
With Ms Whyte lying gravely injured on the station platform, ‘loner’ Majek was seen laughing and dancing at the hotel, clearly excited by his horrific act of violence
Majek had no documentation upon arrival in the UK and claimed to be aged 18, despite previously telling German authorities he was actually eight years older.
It forced the court to conduct a protracted age assessment to stop him receiving a more lenient sentence as a teenager.
Mr Justice Soole said a ‘comprehensive’ report concluded his real age was between 25 and 28 and sentenced him on the basis he was 26 at the time of Ms Whyte’s murder.
Passing a sentence of life with a minimum term of 29 years, he told Majek: ‘The evidence against you, in particular from CCTV and DNA, was overwhelming.
‘You continue to deny you were the assailant and the court is thus left with no explanation for what possessed you to murder a member of hotel staff who, together with her colleagues, had been serving and helping you and your fellow residents.’
Ms Whyte’s mother had earlier come face-to-face with her daughter’s killer as she delivered a powerful statement to the court.
Wearing a t-shirt with her daughter’s face printed on it, she addressed Majek directly in the dock: ‘My head is telling me I should utterly hate you, but my heart tells me my love for Rhiannon overpowers this.
‘You will be forgotten as an evil nightmare.’
She finished by making a reference to Majek’s callous display of merriment after the killing, telling him: ‘Just one more thing – let me see you dancing now.’
Ms Whyte’s sister Alex – who is now raising her six-year-old son – also delivered a blistering statement to Majek.
She 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.’
Police have been unable to identify any motive for the ‘vicious and frenzied attack’, with the only clue lying in chilling security footage of Majek staring at Ms Whyte in the hotel during her shift that night.
The trial heard that Ms Whyte clocked off and walked to the station while on the phone to her friend Emma Cowley, who described hearing three ‘really high-pitched, terrified, in-pain’ screams before the line went dead. She immediately raised the alarm.
Leaving Ms Whyte lying gravely injured on the station platform, Majek casually swung by an off licence to buy himself three cans of super-strength OJ Beer and was then seen laughing and dancing at the hotel.
Following Majek’s sentencing, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Ms Whyte’s murder was the ‘consequence of mass illegal migration’.
He said: ‘Given the timing of his illegal entry by small boat, he would have been eligible for deportation to Rwanda.
‘If Labour had allowed the Rwanda scheme to start as planned, this man could have been rapidly deported instead of being put up in an asylum hotel.
‘This murder could have been averted, and Labour must now explain why they think this man should have been in the UK, not Rwanda.
‘It is now clearer than ever that we must leave the ECHR and deport all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival.’
Rhiannon was so worried that night about the staring migrant, she joked about using her pepper spray on him
From the moment he killed Rhiannon Whyte until a prison cell door slammed shut behind him yesterday, Deng Chol Majek showed nothing but cowardice.
The Sudanese boat migrant, who a judge concluded is now 28, proved himself capable of not only horrifying violence, but a level of deception which would be comical were it not so serious.
Time and again during his trial for the murder of the mother-of-one, he lied through his teeth: about his age, about his reasons for claiming asylum, about his ability to speak English and, most of all, about his guilt.
It was a dedication to duplicity that endured right up until the moment he learnt his fate at Coventry Crown Court, when his barrister declared he was continuing to maintain his innocence.
But, as a judge said while passing a life sentence yesterday, the evidence against Majek was ‘overwhelming’.
Majek arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel by small boat on July 29, 2024. Within three months, he was living at the Park Inn Hotel in Walsall, where Ms Whyte was part of a team ‘serving and helping’ the migrants being housed there by the Home Office.
The hotel had already been beset with problems after closing its doors to paying customers, with the new residents variously reported for harassing women, following staff home and even phoning in bomb threats.
That her job now carried a potential risk to her safety was not lost on Ms Whyte: she had started carrying pepper spray and a rape alarm in her bag. On the evening of October 20, 2024, Ms Whyte was working behind the bar at the hotel when she noticed Majek staring at her. His glare was so persistent and intimidating she even joked to a colleague that she felt tempted to use her pepper spray on him.
The staff were so unsettled, they mentioned it to security.
Police outside the Park Inn by Radisson Hotel in Bescot, Walsall – where Ms Whyte worked – in the aftermath of the attack
But when Ms Whyte finished her shift at 11pm, she was left to walk to nearby Bescot station on her own. This has been something her family has struggled to understand. Speaking to the Daily Mail yesterday, Ms Whyte’s sister Emma said: ‘They should have all been protected, there should have been more security making sure they get home all right.’
CCTV captured what happened next in harrowing detail. When Ms Whyte left the hotel, Majek was lurking outside reception and followed her.
She was caught on camera walking into the train station car park, followed around 90 seconds later by Majek, who had his hood up. By the time she walked over a bridge separating the platforms, this gap had closed to just 30 seconds.
Ms Whyte was on the phone to her friend Emma Cowley as she descended on to the station platform. Her friend said she suddenly heard three ‘really high-pitched, terrified, in-pain’ screams before the line went dead.
Majek had pounced on Ms Whyte and launched an attack of shocking ferocity – stabbing her 23 times with a screwdriver, including 19 times in the head. One particularly devastating blow damaged her brain stem and ultimately caused her death.
Ms Whyte was left critically injured on the platform while Majek snatched her phone and left. CCTV captured him throwing the device into a river, where it was later recovered by police.
Unbothered by his barbaric crime, Majek swung by an off-licence, bought beer and spent the rest of the night dancing around the hotel premises.
One particularly chilling clip, captured by another migrant in the hotel car park, showed Majek jigging around while illuminated by the flash of ambulance lights from the railway station.
Ms Whyte’s mother, Donna, came face-to-face with her daughter’s killer as she delivered a powerful statement to the court, telling him: ‘Let me see you dancing now’
He was arrested in his room and eventually charged with murder when Ms Whyte died in hospital, surrounded by family, three days later. But rather than admitting his guilt, Majek selfishly decided to do everything possible to save his own skin.
By that point, his lies had already begun. Upon arrival in Britain, he told authorities his birthday was January 1, 2006 – making him 18 at the time of the murder. But he had told German and Italian authorities he was born eight years earlier – on January 1, 1998 – which would have made him 26.
This particular lie would later cause a headache for the courts, as younger adults are able to use their age to get lighter sentences. Mr Justice Soole yesterday said an age assessment had concluded the age Majek gave to German authorities was likely correct – and sentenced him as a 26-year-old.
‘Your age and level of maturity provide no mitigation,’ he said. ‘The evidence shows a level of maturity which is consistent with your true age; and indeed a chilling composure in every aspect of your behaviour.’
Giving evidence, Majek revealed he had abandoned his pregnant wife and family in Sudan in 2022 to travel to Libya, then across the Mediterranean by small boat where he was ‘saved in the sea by the Italian authorities’.
He spent around four months in Italy before moving to Germany, where he lived for around a year until he decided to make his way to the UK after being turned down for asylum.
Majek had been in the process of applying for asylum in the UK – despite having already lodged a claim in Germany – on the basis he was fleeing war in Sudan.
Yet he appeared to forget this was the reason for his asylum claim when he gave evidence, telling jurors he was on the run from a soldier who was threatening him because his family had refused to let the man marry his sister.
In a further farce, Majek was assisted by an interpreter specialising in the Sudanese dialect of Arabic after insisting he had no grasp of the English language. His account came unstuck, however, when a housing officer who worked at the hotel told the court he regularly had conversations with Majek in English.
The judge gave Majek’s defence – and continued protestations of innocence – short shrift, saying: ‘The evidence against you, in particular from CCTV and DNA, was overwhelming.
‘You continue to deny you were the assailant and the court is thus left with no explanation for what possessed you to murder a member of hotel staff who, together with her colleagues, had been serving and helping you and your fellow residents.’
For Ms Whyte’s family, her killer’s cowardly refusal to accept responsibility made their ordeal all the more terrible. Her sister Alex told Majek in court: ‘Rhiannon was dehumanised at every turn throughout this process by you and your cowardly defence.’
