An asylum seeker has been convicted of murdering a hotel worker, who was stabbed at a train station.
Deng Chol Majek, who claims to be 19, will be sentenced at a later date after a jury found him guilty of murdering Rhiannon Whyte at Walsall's Bescot Stadium station on October 20 last year.
Majek, who is believed to have entered the UK by small boat less than three months before he attacked Rhiannon Whyte, showed no emotion in the dock as the verdict was returned.
Jurors at Wolverhampton Crown Court deliberated for two hours and five minutes on Friday before unanimously convicting Majek of murder and possessing a screwdriver as an offensive weapon.
Ms Whyte, who worked at the Park Inn Hotel where Majek was staying, was stabbed 23 times. She was waiting for a train home after work at approximately 11.15 pm.
The 27-year-old died in hospital three days later, after being found injured in a shelter on the platform by the driver and guard of a train which pulled in about five minutes later
During the trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, jurors were shown CCTV footage of Majek appearing to stare at Ms Whyte and two other female colleagues that day.
He then brushed into her deliberately at the hotel entrance shortly before the end of her shift, prosecutors said.
CCTV footage then showed him following Ms Whyte into Bescot Stadium station, and then walking away from the platform.
He returned to the hotel at 12.13 am, changed his bloodstained flip-flops for trainers and was seen dancing with other residents in the car park, within sight of emergency vehicles called to the station.
Majek was then seen smoking and drinking with friends in a car park near Park Inn hotel.
A hotel housing officer said he appeared to be “back to himself” when he was in the car park and “seemed happier than before”.
Mobile phone footage shown to jurors showed him dancing with his friends as he walked back to his hotel room.
Majek was later found with the woman’s DNA under his fingernails, the court heard.
“It is utterly callous.”
In her closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC described Majek’s dismissal of DNA evidence and his claims not to be a man caught on clear CCTV wearing a distinctive jacket and flip-flops, as “laughable”, and an insult to relatives of Ms Whyte listening from the public gallery.
Ms Heeley said of Majek’s behaviour after the murder: “He is celebrating, his mood has changed from that prolonged scowl in the cafe before the murder to dancing and joy after the murder. It is utterly callous.”
Throughout his trial, Majek, who is from Sudan and claims to be 19, denied murder and possessing a screwdriver as a weapon. He had his replies and evidence translated by a Sudanese Arabic interpreter.
He told his trial he was “staying in the hotel, outside” at the time Ms Whyte was attacked, and denied being at the train station where she was stabbed.
Majek told the court he left Sudan aged 16. He 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.
"It is abundantly clear how loved Rhiannon was by her family and friends and today, we should remember her name, and her life, rather than her killers."
In a statement, Senior Investigator DCI Paul Attwell said: “This was a brutal, cowardly and entirely unprovoked attack on a vibrant and selfless young woman who had her whole life ahead of her.
“At no point in our investigation has Majek shown any remorse for taking Rhiannon’s life in such a sadistic and cold-blooded way, nor shown any indication of a motive, and he’s cruelly subjected her family to sitting through a trial despite the damning evidence we presented against him.
“While I am pleased to see justice served today, nothing can ease the pain and devastation of Rhiannon’s family, who have truly been through hell the last 12 months.
“I would like to pay particular tribute to them for their incredible strength and dignity in the most horrific of circumstances – and for how supportive they have been throughout our investigation.
"It is abundantly clear how loved Rhiannon was by her family and friends and today, we should remember her name, and her life, rather than her killers."
“He attacked her for no reason and callously left her bleeding on a station platform."
Carla Harris, a senior crown prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Rhiannon Whyte should have been able to go to work and come home safely, but Deng Chol Majek robbed her of her life and future.
“He attacked her for no reason and callously left her bleeding on a station platform.
“He then appeared to rejoice in his actions, having been caught laughing and dancing on footage an hour later.
“Although nothing can bring Rhiannon back, I hope these convictions provide some sense of justice to her family and friends.”
ITV News
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