‘Vicious and frenzied’: the fatal attack on Walsall hotel worker Rhiannon Whyte

It was around 11pm on 20 October 2024 when Rhiannon Skye Whyte, a 27-year-old from Walsall, finished her late shift at the Park Inn hotel in Wolverhampton and made her way to the nearby railway station. Whyte, who cleaned and served food at the hotel housing asylum seekers, had been working there for about three months. Unknown to Whyte, her steps were being tracked by Deng Chol Majek, a Sudanese national who had claimed asylum in the UK and was staying at the hotel. Majek, who told his trial he was 19, waited near the hotel’s reception before following Whyte to the Bescot Stadium railway station. It was there that Majek carried out what the prosecution described as a “vicious and frenzied” attack, stabbing Whyte 23 times with a screwdriver – 11 of which penetrated her skull – leaving her for dead. She died of her injuries in hospital three days later, having suffered a fatal brain injury. Majek was found guilty of murdering Whyte and possessing an offensive weapon at Wolverhampton crown court on Friday. During the trial, the prosecution said CCTV showed Majek following Whyte to the train station. After the attack, footage then showed him throwing Whyte’s phone into the River Tame before he bought a beer from a local store and walked back to the hotel. In a particularly chilling moment of the trial, jurors were shown a clip of Majek dancing and drinking in the hotel car park after the attack. In the background, the blue flashing lights of emergency services are visible. The housing officer Tyler English, who saw Majek after the attack, told the court he was “drinking, smoking and just chatting amongst his group of friends”. The group were “almost like having a good time in a sense”, he said. Representing the prosecution, Michelle Heeley KC said Majek was “clearly excited about what he had done” and that “his mood changed from that prolonged scowl in the cafe before the murder to dancing and joy after the murder”. Hours later, in the early morning of 21 October, officers arrested Majek and seized a number of his belongings – including a jacket, a ring and sandals. During a police interview lasting more than 90 minutes, Majek was silent. Heeley told the court the items seized by police were found to have Whyte’s blood on them. “The defendant’s fingernails were checked, he had DNA under them – the DNA belonged to Rhiannon Whyte.” The prosecution said the motivation for the attack was “not initially clear” although Majek’s behaviour on the day of the murder had unsettled staff at the hotel. Members of staff said Majek had been staring at Whyte and colleagues, making them feel uncomfortable. A hotel chef, Louise Brittle, and the duty manager, Claire Taylor-Bevans, said Majek “couldn’t take his eyes off any of us”. At one point Brittle said she had to turn her chair around owing to “how scary it felt”. “The way he was staring at us. He had been there around three months at the hotel. He never interacted with many people. He was like a loner,” she said. Taylor-Bevans described feeling “intimidated” by the behaviour and reporting it to the security at the hotel. She said Majek was “staring at all three of us behind the bar, spookily. Like through us – as though we weren’t there.” The duty manager then recounted an incident on the day of the attack where Majek “brushed past my arm and knocked Rhiannon’s arm” when leaving the hotel reception. Whyte was speaking to a childhood friend on the phone when the attack happened. Emma Cowley, who gave evidence in court in a video-recorded interview, detailed how a normal conversation with her friend descended into screams. “I think I asked her, ‘Where are you now?’ and she said: ‘I am just headed towards the station.’ I just remember there was silence and she’s not one to just go silent. “So I was like ‘Rhiannon, are you still there?’ and originally I didn’t hear anything and then I heard a scream. It was a really high-pitched, terrified, in-pain scream.” Throughout the trial, Majek insisted he was “staying in the hotel, outside” at the time of the attack and had no reason to harm or kill Whyte. He told the court he was not the figure following her to the train station, as seen in CCTV footage shown to the jury. He also told jurors he left Sudan at the age of 16 in April 2022 and claimed asylum in the UK after arriving in July 2024. Majek, who confirmed he was married and had a child, said he travelled from Sudan to Libya, Italy and Germany before arriving in the UK in July 2024, and had left his pregnant wife behind in Sudan. He told the jury a mistake on his identity document in Germany incorrectly classified him as being 27. Speaking outside the court after Majek was found guilty, Rhiannon’s sister Alex Whyte said that she had “a beautiful and bright future” that was taken from her by Majek, and the only thing to bring the family any relief from the pain that they feel is the hope “that Deng Chol Majek will spend the rest of his life alone and unloved”.