Jury sworn in for trial of Sudanese man accused of train station murder

A jury has been sworn in to try a murder suspect accused of fatally stabbing a hotel worker at a railway station.

Deng Chol Majek, 19, pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing to the murder of Rhiannon Whyte and a separate count of possessing a screwdriver as an offensive weapon at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium station.

Majek, formerly a resident at the Park Inn hotel in nearby Bescot Crescent, was assisted by a Sudanese dialect Arabic interpreter at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Monday as a jury of six men and six women was sworn in.

Prosecutors allege Majek, understood to be an asylum seeker, used a screwdriver to attack Ms Whyte last October.

The 27-year-old died in hospital three days after being found injured at the station.

After the jury was sworn in, trial judge Mr Justice Soole told the panel that the case against Majek will be opened by prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC on Tuesday.

The judge told the jury: “Any case involving a death raises natural emotions.

“But the absolute duty of you all is to set emotion aside, and in a cool and calm way, consider the evidence utterly dispassionately.”