This is the moment an asylum seeker allegedly followed a woman who worked at the migrant hotel where he was living before stabbing her to death on a deserted train platform.
Sudanese national Deng Chol Majek, who claims he is 19, went on trial today accused of launching a ‘vicious and frenzied attack’ on Rhiannon Whyte as she commuted home from the Park Inn Hotel in Walsall.
Majek denies murdering Ms Whyte and a second charge of possessing a screwdriver in a public place.
He is alleged to have followed the 27-year-old to an empty platform at Bescott station, where he stabbed her 23 times with a screwdriver as she waited to catch a late train on October 20 last year.
CCTV shown at the first day of his trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court today allegedly captured Majek ‘staring at Rhiannon throughout the evening’.
Majek denies it is him in the footage.
The first clip, captured at 8.10pm, showed Ms Whyte sitting behind the bar in the hotel while a man alleged to be the defendant fixes his gaze on her from a few metres away.
‘No one could recall any particular issue that would have caused him to act in that way,’ prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said.
‘There had been an issue about some broken biscuits with some of the residents but nothing serious.’
Ms Heeley said that when Ms Whyte left the hotel at 11pm, Majek was ‘lurking outside reception’. He allegedly followed her and the prosecution claimed he was seen entering the train car park 90 seconds behind her.
Footage shown in court captured Ms Whyte walking across the empty car park at 11.10pm, followed by a figure with his hood up.
By the time she walked over a bridge separating the platforms, this gap had closed to just 30 seconds, Ms Heeley said. Ms Whyte was alone when she reached the platform.
‘It was then that the prosecution say this defendant attacked her,’ Ms Heeley said.
Ms Whyte had been on the phone to a pal, who heard two screams as she was struck ‘over and over again’ at 11.13pm. The line went dead shortly afterwards.
‘Rhiannon had been talking to her friend, Emma. It then went silent and Emma heard a scream, then another scream and the phone went dead at 11.19pm.’
She was found by a train driver slumped on the platform 11 minutes later, but was too seriously injured to be saved and died surrounded by family three days after the attack on October 23.
Ms Heeley said of the defendant: ‘He left her bleeding to death and then casually went back to his hotel.’
After Ms Whyte was attacked, the defendant was allegedly seen on CCTV running back up the stairs from the platform holding an object lit up in his hand, which the prosecution said was Ms Whyte’s phone.
The footage was taken at 11.15pm and showed a man with his hood pulled tight around his face walking up the stairs leading to the bridge with what appears to be a glowing screen in his hand.
In the next clip, overlooking another bridge at 11.19pm, the figure is seen throwing an object into the water, which the prosecution said was Ms Whyte’s phone. It was later recovered from the water by police.
Ms Heeley continued: ‘The defendant did not go straight back to the hotel, he went to a local shop and bought himself a drink first, arriving back in the hotel at 12.13am.
‘Once at the hotel he was seen dancing and laughing, clearly excited about what he had done.’
CCTV showed him returning to the hotel carrying a black plastic bag which the prosecutor said contained some alcohol.
Ms Whyte’s family, who were sitting in the public gallery, wiped away tears as they watched the footage played to the court today.
Ms Whyte was stabbed 23 times, including 11 stab wounds which penetrated her skull – one of which damaged her brain stem and ultimately caused her death.
Police were ‘very quickly’ able to trace the defendant because he was wearing ‘very distinctive clothing’ and made an arrest shortly afterwards at the hotel, Ms Heeley said.
They found him in possession of clothes including the jacket the attacker from the CCTV could be seen wearing, as well as jewellery and a pair of sandals, all of which were found to have Ms Whyte’s blood on them, the court heard.
Ms Whyte’s DNA was found underneath the fingernails of the defendant, the jury was told. He is alleged to have disposed of both the screwdriver and Ms Whyte’s phone before returning to the hotel.
Ms Heeney said: ‘The prosecution say this was a murder because the person who attacked Rhiannon carried out a vicious and frenzied attack. They meant to seriously hurt Rhiannon, to kill her, and they carried out the attack by stabbing her repeatedly in the head with a weapon.
‘We say you can be sure it was this defendant and no one else. He can be seen on the CCTV staring at Rhiannon, he then follows her from the hotel to the station. CCTV then follows him all the way back to the hotel.
‘His clothes have her blood on, his fingernails have her DNA under them, she had injuries from where she tried to defend herself.’
The defendant was said to accept he was at the hotel that night, but claims the issue is one of misidentification.
The prosecutor said that Ms Whyte had worked at the hotel for around three months, where she helped ‘with all manner of things including cleaning and serving food’.
Majek lived at the hotel, which had ‘been turned into a hotel for asylum seekers’.
‘He also claimed to be 18 (at the time), but there are doubts about that,’ Ms Heeley said.
The trial continues.
