Asylum seeker found guilty of murdering hotel worker with screwdriver

As she stood on the train platform at the Bescot Stadium train station, Majek stabbed her 23 times with a screwdriver.

Ms Whyte sustained multiple injuries to her head and died from a brain stem injury three days after the attack.

During the trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, CCTV was shown to jurors in which Majek could be seen staring at the victim when she was handing out snacks, hours before he would go on to attack her.

A witness told the court they felt "scared" and "worried he was going to do something that night". They even informed the hotel’s security staff they "all felt intimidated".

After Ms Whyte's shift ended at 11pm, she walked across the road to the Bescot Train Station.

Unbeknown to her, Majek had waited outside in the car park and started to follow.

Wearing what the prosecution described as "distinctive clothing”, he gradually got closer.

Around 11:15pm, he walked up the last steps to the station and attacked her on the train platform.

11 of the stab wounds she suffered had penetrated her skull, with one damaging the brain stem. This caused her death three days later.

In their closing speech on Thursday, Michelle Heeley KC, prosecuting the case, said: "This defendant can be seen clearly, wearing that jacket with the different colour arms, black combats, a man bag and sandals.

"The suggestion that it is anyone other than this defendant is just ridiculous."

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that Majek came to the UK in July last year because his claim for asylum was refused by the German authorities.

Majek told jurors he had a German identity document by August 2023 which recorded his date of birth as January 1 1998.

He claimed that date, which would make him 27, was wrong and was due to a “mistake” by officials in Italy after he was "saved in the sea" by them.

The court heard the asylum seeker left Sudan "because there was a war and I had been threatened" by "a man in the army".

He said had got married at 16 and had a daughter who was born after he’d left Sudan.

The court heard he had travelled through Libya, Italy and then Germany.

After the attack, Majek was seen on CCTV leaving the train station, he threw Ms Whyte’s phone into a river, walked to a shop to buy alcohol and returned to the hotel.

As the emergency services arrived, footage recovered by the police showed the Sudanese asylum seeker laughing and dancing to music in the hotel car park, the prosecution told the jury Majek was “clearly excited by what he had done” and that the action had been "utterly callous".

Giving evidence during the trial, Majek denied this and said: "I saw the blue lights, but didn’t think there was a problem.

"It was just music and dancing like normal."

Forensic scientists found Rhiannon’s blood on Majek’s jacket, trousers, shoes, and jewellery. DNA recovered from swabs of his fingernails were also a match for Ms Whyte.

Addressing jurors on Thursday, Ms Heeley said: "Ladies and gentlemen, you have a stark choice. Do you accept the evidence of an independent forensic scientist, or do you believe the defendant who sat silently in interview, with no answers to police questions?

"Do you accept the detailed, colour CCTV footage of the attacker in identical clothing to the defendant, or do you believe the defendant when he says ‘it’s not me’.

"You may think it’s not really a difficult question. I suggest his answers to you are laughable. He is trying to meet the overwhelming evidence, and he has failed."

In his closing statement, Defence barrister, Gurdeep Garcha KC, said Ms Whyte’s loss was a tragedy and a “waste of a young life”.

He told jurors: "A female walking from work to a railway station being attacked in a frenzied assault is every parent’s worst nightmare."

The KC added that the trial was “as sad a case as it’s possible to imagine” and urged jurors not to treat it as "some sort of referendum" on issues surrounding the issue of asylum.

After the attack in October, her family paid tribute to Ms Whyte, calling her "the most selfless person".

They said: "The most loved daughter, compassionate sister, loving aunty, gracious granddaughter, beautiful niece, wonderful cousin and devoted friend.

"The most selfless person you were brave, quirky, funny, and always there for anyone who needed it.

"There is not enough paper in the world to even begin to write a tribute for you, but no one deserves it more.

"The weird thing about this devastating loss is that we now need to navigate life without you, but how?

"If your short life will teach anything it's to cherish each moment with those you love as tomorrow is never guaranteed.

"You are so strong, a fighter and no matter what happens, we as a family will always be united for you. We will love and miss you for now for always and forever."

The jury found Majek guilty of murdering Rhiannon Whyte and possession of a screwdriver as an offensive weapon.

Speaking to GB News, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, said: "I can't believe that such a horrible thing would happen to the mother of a young child. I've got three kids myself. My youngest is six years old. Losing a mum at that age is absolutely horrific.

"We have to get people who are criminals who do not belong here out of our country. We have to stop the boats. Everything else feeds off that. And stopping the boats requires a proper deterrent."

She told the People's Channel that the Rwanda plan, scrapped by Labour after it won the 2024 General Election, would have served as a deterrent.

Mrs Badenoch claimed that Labour had no plan, highlighting Keir Starmer's "one in, one out" policy.

Since the deal came into effect in early August, more than 10,000 illegal migrants have crossed the Channel, with just 42 having returned to France.

She added: "I've said that we have to leave the ECHR now. That is Conservative Party policy. We tried everything and the legal activists kept interrupting, kept stopping the flights going on.

"So we will leave the ECHR. That is the first of many steps which we're going to need in order to control our borders."