Rhiannon Whyte friend ‘heard silence then screams’, court told

Jurors in the trial of an asylum seeker accused of killing a hotel worker have heard how she phoned her friend on her way home, but the call ended in screams.

Deng Majek, from Sudan, who claims to be 19, denies murdering Rhiannon Whyte, 27, by stabbing her 23 times with a screwdriver on a platform at Bescot Stadium rail station on 20 October 2024.

Wolverhampton Crown Court has heard he killed her after “tracking” her from the hotel to the nearby station after her shift ended at 23:00 BST.

Her friend, Emma Cowley, said she was on the phone to Ms Whyte when she heard “a really high-pitched, terrified, in-pain scream”. Jurors have seen CCTV of Ms Whyte at the station, on her phone.

Ms Cowley, who gave evidence in a video-recorded interview, said she texted Ms Whyte just before 23:00, and her friend replied she would call on her way home.

When they spoke, Ms Whyte was on her way to the station, she said, but she went silent.

“I just remember a silence and she’s not one to just go silent, so I was like, are you still there?” she said.

“I didn’t hear anything and then I heard a scream. It was a really high-pitched, terrified, in-pain scream.”

Ms Cowley said she thought someone might be drunk on the platform with her friend, and said her name, but had no response. She added she heard heavy breathing.

“More silence and I heard another scream,” she said.

She said she asked if Ms Whyte was OK, before she heard another scream and then just silence.

The court was told she heard three screams in total.

Ms Cowley had been phoning from outside the West Midlands and did not know where the hotel was that her friend worked at, the jury heard.

“My husband ran in with the phone and said ‘ring the police now’,” she said.

“I was in shock, panicking, I didn’t know how to handle it.”

She said she had both their phones and was ringing Ms Whyte’s mother at the same time as she called 999.

The pair, both 27, had been friends since the age of five, and had chatted every couple of days, jurors heard.

Jurors heard Ms Cowley kept trying to call her friend back, but her phone had been turned off.

She said the first scream probably came at about 23:15, adding: “It was like silence, literally silence, I couldn’t even hear footsteps, I could not hear a thing.”

Earlier, women who worked with Ms Whyte told the court Mr Majek had been sitting in the bar staring and jurors heard they had “all felt intimated”.

Mr Majek, who also denies possessing an offensive weapon, was “just fixated at the bar area” where Ms Whyte was handing out snacks, the court heard.

Duty manager Claire Taylor-Bevans said she asked the security team at the Serco-run hotel to “keep an eye” on him.

Hotel chef Louise Brittle told the court how she had seen a tall, dark-skinned man sitting at a high table, wearing a silver top with the hood up.

She told prosecution KC Michelle Heeley: “He was just staring through us… like eyes wide open and he just couldn’t take his eyes off any of us.”

Ms Brittle said she turned a chair so her back was towards him.

She added: “He was like a loner.”

Ms Brittle also told the court how she asked to see a picture of the man who had been arrested, after she heard the following day that Ms Whyte had been killed.

She said: “I was shown the exact image that I still have in my mind. It was of the person sitting opposite the bar area that night, staring at us all.”

Under cross-examination from defence barrister Gurdeep Garcha KC, Mrs Brittle said: “It was like he was planning something, that’s the only way I can describe it. It was really scary, it was like he was going to do something that night.”

Mrs Taylor-Bevans said Mr Majek had been staring at her, Ms Whyte and another worker, Jamie Leigh Bannister.

“He was staring at all three of us behind the bar, spookily,” she said, “like through us – as though we weren’t there.”

She said after they finished serving crisps and biscuits, she told security staff they “all felt intimidated”.

All three had gone outside to vape when he “brushed past my arm and knocked Rhiannon’s arm”, she said.

Mrs Taylor-Bevans said she looked at Ms Whyte, who said: “He’s just knocked me.”

Defending, Mr Garcha asked if it could have been accidental.

Mrs Taylor-Bevans said: “He didn’t have to go that close to us… he had loads of space, he was too close to us. He was walking closer than he needed to be.”

CCTV shown to jurors included footage of Ms Whyte and the other workers at the time Mr Majek was said to have “knocked” her arm.

Ms Bannister, who had been on a late shift with Ms Whyte, also told how the three women realised he was staring directly at them all night.

She said her brother picked her up outside and she went straight home after their shift finished at 23:00.

Ms Whyte was still in the hotel at that point and seemed “jolly as always”, she said. She later found out on Facebook that she had been attacked.

Mr Garcha said Ms Whyte never asked for a lift, adding none of them were so upset they thought about changing plans for getting home.

The trial continues on Thursday.