Asylum seeker seen ‘dancing and laughing’ after stabbing hotel worker 23 times, jury hears

An asylum seeker stabbed a hotel worker more than 20 times with a screwdriver on a railway station platform and left her for dead, a jury has heard.

Deng Chol Majek left Rhiannon Skye Whyte with 23 stab wounds, mainly to her head, at Bescot Stadium station in Walsall, West Midlands, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Jurors heard how Majek, who is from Sudan and claims to be 19, was caught on CCTV following Ms Whyte from the town’s Park Inn hotel, which was then being used to house asylum seekers, on 20 October last year.

Ms Whyte was heard screaming during a phone call to a friend after finishing her shift, prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC told the court. Her body was found on the platform by a train guard minutes later.

Opening the Crown’s case against Majek at the murder trial on Tuesday, Ms Heeley told the court he followed the 27-year-old from the hotel, where he was living.

“He followed her down on to the train platform at the Bescot Stadium station and then he attacked her. Stabbing her over and over again with a screwdriver,” Ms Heeley said.

“He left her bleeding to death and then casually went back to his hotel. We say you can be sure he is guilty of murder.”

Jurors were told Ms Whyte had worked at the hotel for around three months, helping with cleaning and serving food.

“During the evening one of Rhiannon’s co-workers noticed this defendant. He seemed to be staring at Rhiannon and the women she was working with,” Ms Heeley said.

“No one could recall any particular issue that would have caused him to act in that way.”

She added: “What is clear from the CCTV is that the defendant was hanging around the reception area, staring at Rhiannon throughout the evening. He changed into a distinctive jacket and sandals and then waited around the reception area where Rhiannon was.

“CCTV tracks the defendant all the way. He followed her from the hotel and to the station. He had been hanging around waiting for her to leave and waited until she was on her own before he followed her.”

Ms Heeley said Ms Whyte’s friend “heard a scream, then another scream” before her “phone went dead”.

A train driver who pulled into the station saw a figure slumped on the platform and Ms Heeley said the guard tried to help Ms Whyte, as did an employee who had come from the hotel, but “she was too seriously injured and nothing could be done to save her”.

She died in hospital surrounded by family three days later.

Ms Heeley said Majek went to a shop to buy a drink, threw Ms Whyte’s phone into a river, and then returned to the hotel, where “he was seen dancing and laughing, clearly excited about what he had done”.

Majek denies murder and possessing a screwdriver as an offensive weapon.

The trial continues.