Asylum seeker accused of murder tells jury he ‘never had a problem with anyone’

An asylum seeker accused of murdering a hotel worker has told a jury he was not at the train station where she was fatally stabbed and had no reason to want to harm her or kill her.

Deng Chol Majek told his trial he was “staying in the hotel, outside” at the time Rhiannon Whyte was attacked, and had never spoken to her during around three months living at Walsall’s Park Inn hotel.

Prosecutors allege Majek, who claims to be 19, was caught on CCTV following Ms Whyte from the hotel to the nearby Bescot Stadium station, where she was stabbed in the head 19 times with a screwdriver on October 20 last year.

Majek, who denies murder and possessing a screwdriver as an offensive weapon, had his replies translated by a Sudanese Arabic interpreter as he gave evidence to Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday.

Answering questions from defence KC Gurdeep Garcha, Majek said he had “never had a problem with anyone” at the hotel and had never noticed Ms Whyte while staying there.

As well as giving details of his upbringing in Sudan, Majek confirmed that he had spent time in Libya, Italy and Germany before coming to the UK to claim asylum in July last year.

Mr Garcha asked Majek: “This case concerns the assault on Rhiannon Whyte on the 20th of October 2024. In that assault she received injuries from which she died a few days later.

“Were you at Bescot train station at the time she was stabbed?”

Majek answered: “No.”

The defendant again answered simply “no” when was asked if he was “responsible for that fatal assault” on the platform.

Asked where he was at the time of the attack, Majek responded: “I was staying in the hotel, outside.”

After telling the court he is aged 19 and had left Sudan when aged 16, Majek said an incorrect date of birth held by authorities in Germany, which would mean he is aged 27, was due to a mistake on an identity document.

Mr Garcha questioned Majek as to how he had got on with staff during his “three months or so” at the hotel.

“I never had a problem with anyone,” he said, adding that he had not witnessed any other residents having problems with members of staff.

Answering questions specifically relating to Ms Whyte, Majek claimed he had never had an argument with the 27-year-old and that there were no issues between them.

He then answered “no” to questions asking if he had any reason to want to harm Ms Whyte, or any reason to cause her really serious injury, or to kill her.

After telling jurors he did not own a screwdriver while living at the hotel, Majek was invited to tell the panel who was responsible for fixing things if anything came loose in his hotel room.

Majek said: “I was told by the staff at the hotel that if anything is broken, not to fix it and to report it to the staff.”

The trial has heard claims that Majek spent prolonged periods staring “spookily” at Ms Whyte and two of her female colleagues and that he brushed into her deliberately in the hotel entrance shortly before the end of her shift.

Majek told the court there was no specific reason he was eating alone and listening to music while near the workers in the hotel’s bar area.

Denying that he was looking at Ms Whyte or trying to make the staff members feel uncomfortable, Majek said: “I had no problems with anyone.

“I was just listening to music.

“I didn’t have them in mind and I was thinking about something else.”

After jurors were shown CCTV footage recorded at the hotel’s main entrance around an hour before Mr Whyte was attacked, Mr Garcha asked: “As you walked through the door did you deliberately brush past the women as they came in the other way?”

Majek stated: “No I didn’t. I was just walking my own path. I didn’t hit anyone.”

Asked if he was at the station at 11.19pm during the “90 seconds or so” when the attack occurred, Majek said at the time he was outside the hotel in the smoking area.

Majek said he re-entered the hotel at 12.13am and left his room at the hotel to smoke outside with a group of men at 12.37am, telling the court: “I did join them. I was in a normal mood.”

The alleged killer said he was unaware of blue flashing lights from nearby emergency vehicles as he was filmed dancing on the car park.

Mr Garcha asked: “When you were on the car park dancing and singing is that because you were euphoric at what you had done to Rhiannon Whyte?”

Majek responded: “No. It wasn’t me who injured her. I was playing music like normal and was just dancing like normal.”

At the end of a full day in the witness box, Majek, who said he “disagrees” with DNA evidence alleged to link his clothing to the victim, was cross-examined by prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC for about 15 minutes.

After Majek insisted his jacket had no blood on it, Ms Heeley asked the defendant to be shown footage of a man he says is not him visiting a mini market shortly after the attack.

“Look this jury in the eye and tell them that’s not you,” the prosecutor said.

Majek raised his head and told the jury: “That’s not me.”

Ms Heeley then suggested that the footage showed the figure in the image brushing something off their trousers from an area where blood was found on Majek’s clothing.

She then asked: “Had you just noticed the blood on your trousers?”

Majek answered: “That’s not me.”

The trial continues on Wednesday.