A man has been convicted of the brutal murder of Rhiannon Whyte, a 27-year-old hotel worker who was stabbed 23 times in an unprovoked attack at a railway station.
Deng Chol Majek, an asylum seeker, was found guilty by a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday, October 24, 2025.
The trial revealed the chilling sequence of events, from Majek stalking his victim to his "callous" behavior just moments after the killing.
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| Rhiannon Whyte |
Rhiannon Whyte was a devoted mother to her five-year-old son and had been working at the Park Inn Hotel for about three months before she died.
Around the same time she began working there — in July 2024, to be precise — her killer, Deng Chol Majek, arrived in the UK via a boat. He was also moved into the Park Inn Hotel, which was being used as housing for asylum seekers.
On October 20, 2024, Ms Whyte was working a late shift from 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM.
At the end of her shift, Ms. Whyte went outside for a vape before walking across the road to Bescot Stadium station to catch her train home.
Unbeknownst to her, she was being followed.
CCTV footage presented during the two-week trial showed Majek following Ms. Whyte from a distance, while she was on a call with her lifelong friend, Emma Cowley, during her walk.
When they got to a lonely spot, Deng Chol Majek launched a savage attack, while the victim was still on the phone.
BBC reported that he stabbed Rhiannon Whyte 23 times with a screwdriver—11 of the wounds penetrated her skull, with one cutting through her brain stem.
After the attack, CCTV captured Majek walking quickly away from the scene and throwing Ms. Whyte's phone into the River Tame.
A member of railway staff later found Rhiannon Whyte slumped in a platform shelter.
Despite being rushed to the hospital, Rhiannon never regained consciousness and died three days later.
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| Deng Chol Majek |
During the trial, prosecutors described Majek’s actions as “utterly callous.”
Less than 90 minutes after the attack, CCTV footage showed him dancing and drinking in the hotel car park while emergency crews were still trying to save the victims’ lives.
The court also heard that earlier that day, Rhiannon’s co-workers had noticed Majek — who is originally from Sudan — staring at her and others in a way they described as “intimidating, scary, and unsettling.”
Despite the overwhelming evidence—including CCTV footage, Rhiannon's DNA under his nails, and her blood on his clothing—Majek repeatedly denied he was the killer, insisting the evidence was wrong.
The murder weapon was never found, but that didn’t stop the jury from seeing through his lies. After just over two hours of deliberation, they returned a guilty verdict.
Despite the conviction,
the British Transport Police said the motive behind Majek’s “savage attack” remains unknown — and will likely never be known.
When the verdict was read, her mother, Siobhan, put her head in her hands and wept, while Rhiannon's two sisters were also in tears.
In a powerful statement outside court, her sister Alexandra, who is now raising Rhiannon's young son, said: "Deng Chol Majek stalked, hunted and then preyed on our defenceless Rhiannon, before cornering her and unleashing a vicious attack – and for what purpose?"
Alexandra spoke about the profound loss her family has suffered, saying, "He took so many opportunities from Rhiannon, she will never watch her son grow up, we will never watch her marry, build a family, buy her first house or learn to drive."
A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for December 15, 2025, where a judge will determine his punishment.
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