Rhiannon Whyte’s family haunted by death of asylum hotel worker

With her brightly-coloured hair and infectious personality, kindness and fun radiated from Rhiannon Whyte.

“No matter what her day had been like, she always wanted to make everyone else happy,” her sister Alex said.

“She would literally take her shirt off her back to give it to you.”

Rhiannon saw the good in everyone and everything, leading to her siblings – she was the second youngest of five – wanting to protect her.

“Rhiannon never understood how scary the world really could be,” Alex said.

“No matter what, Rhiannon was just happy, always.”

• This report contains upsetting details

In the summer of 2024, she took a job at Walsall’s Park Inn, which at the time was temporarily housing asylum seekers.

“The hotel was a way of her giving to a wider community,” Alex said.

But on 20 October last year, one of the residents followed Rhiannon from the West Midlands hotel to a nearby railway station after she had finished her late shift.

Deng Majek stabbed her with a crosshead screwdriver 23 times on a deserted platform for reasons that are still unknown.

Rhiannon died three days later, leaving her son without a mother and a family devastated.

Alex told her nephew his mummy had “gone to heaven”.

“The scream that left that child that day will haunt me for the rest of my life,” said Alex, fighting back tears.

Exactly a year after Rhiannon’s death, her family sat in court for two weeks to listen to her killer’s attempts to distance himself from the murder.

To almost every question asked by his own barrister and the prosecutor about his actions on the night, Majek simply said: “It wasn’t me.”

When shown several CCTV pictures capturing him eerily staring at Rhiannon while she was at work and then following her to the station, he said again and again: “That’s not me.”

Even faced with evidence that spots of blood found on his jacket, trousers, sandals and a ring were a billion times more likely to have come from Rhiannon than anyone else, he denied its existence.

CCTV and mobile phone footage showed him laughing and dancing with friends as the blue lights of emergency vehicles flashed in the background, while paramedics desperately tried to save Rhiannon’s life.

It took jurors at Wolverhampton Crown Court just over two hours to convict Majek of her murder.

Rhiannon started work at the Serco-run hotel in July 2024 around the same time Majek arrived.

During the trial, jurors were told he left war-torn Sudan in 2022, fleeing conflict and a threat from someone in the army who wanted to marry his sister, but his family had refused.

Majek, who claims to be 19, left his family behind, making his way across Europe and arriving in the UK after apparently crossing the Channel in a small boat.

He claimed asylum, saying he had been threatened in Sudan and it was dangerous for him to return.

Alex said her sister “made friends really fast, no matter where she went” and that the hotel had been no different.

“She would often sit with the service users and have conversations,” she said.

“No matter what situation you came from, Rhiannon just wanted to offer support.”

The family had questioned whether Rhiannon was safe, but Alex said her sister had assured them there was “a lot of security” at the hotel.

She was often walked to the nearby Bescot Stadium railway station by someone from the security team.

Taking the train was normal for Rhiannon. “It’s a three-minute journey on the train to get home to our mum,” said Alex.

“Why would she ever be afraid of that?”

Late that Sunday night, Rhiannon finished work at 23:00 BST and set off home.

She was alone when Majek followed her across the station car park and over the footbridge to the platform.

His savage attack, lasting 90 seconds, left her with 23 stab wounds.

Wolverhampton Crown Court was told that of those injuries, Rhiannon was stabbed 19 times in the head, with 11 injuries to her skull and one wound so deep it pierced her brain stem.

She had been on the phone to childhood friend Emma Cowley when she was attacked.

Their call was interrupted by Rhiannon’s high-pitched, terrified screams, before it ended in silence, jurors heard during the trial.

That night, Ms Cowley made simultaneous calls, dialling 999 for police and ringing Rhiannon’s mother.

At first the family did not know where Rhiannon was, but it soon emerged she had been found by a train driver and taken to hospital in Birmingham.

The family arrived at the hospital to be told Rhiannon had around six hours to live, but she was “never going to give up easily”, her sister said.

Rhiannon spent three days fighting for her life and the family say that gave them time to say goodbye.

“To have those precious moments with her just proves her strength,” Alex said.

Rhiannon grew up with three sisters and a brother. She had a five-year-old son along with nieces and nephews and her mum was her best friend, Alex said.

The family promised Rhiannon in her last hours alive they were going to live the way she wanted them to, Alex said.

During the months after her death, facing their loss and the upcoming trial, they worked to instil positivity in the children and, as a family, they focused on staying strong.

Rhiannon’s mother Siobhan Whyte said: “The worst part is not only losing her, it’s the nieces and nephews and her son – they’re struggling because they miss her.

“For no reason he’s taken her away – for nothing.”

At first, when they told Rhiannon’s son what had happened, they said his mother had a “poorly brain” and the doctors couldn’t fix it, so she “had to go to heaven”.

Eventually, Alex had to explain “a bad man had hurt her”.

As much as possible, they tell him funny stories about his mother.

“All she ever gave him was love and happy memories. He never knew darkness when she was around. Why would he?,” Alex said.

She described how lucky they were to have him, adding: “We’ve always got a piece of her.”

Rhiannon’s son had her laugh, her “amazing blue eyes”, and was like his mother in every way, she said.

Det Ch Insp Paul Attwell, from British Transport Police, said it was one of the most brutal murders he had ever seen and, with the level of force used, Rhiannon “never stood a chance”.

Majek’s lack of remorse had been “really tough” on the family, who had listened to graphic evidence, he said, adding: “Nobody can understand what they’ve been through.

“The level of respect I have for them as people is the highest echelon you can reach,” he added.

“To go through what they’ve been through, sit through that court case – it takes special people to be able to do that and they have my utmost respect.”

Majek will serve his sentence before a judicial process addresses his asylum status, Det Ch Insp Attwell said.

Following Majek’s conviction, Alex said she felt nothing towards him.

She said the family had focused their energy instead on keeping Rhiannon’s memory alive.

“I don’t think there’ll ever be enough justice in the world to replace Rhiannon,” she said.

The family now plan to campaign for an end to violence against women.

“Many have tried to imply this is about immigration, but these are the choices of one man, not an ethnic group,” Alex said.

Their mother said she did not want Majek to be deported, but rather to serve a life sentence in the UK.

“Life for a life. None of this deportation. I’m not against asylum seekers, whatever, but he’s taken my daughter away.

“He doesn’t deserve to be sent back to his own country – serve his time here, every day of his life.

“We have to learn how to live without her and he gets to live, and that’s not fair.”

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