Murder accused 'smoked and drank' after woman died

Rhiannon Whyte was stabbed 11 times in the head with a crosshead screwdriver, a court heard

An asylum seeker accused of killing a hotel worker, by stabbing her 23 times with a screwdriver on a railway station platform, sat smoking and drinking with friends in a car park after she died, jurors have heard.

Deng Majek, from Sudan, denies murdering 27-year-old Rhiannon Whyte, who died three days after being attacked near Bescot Stadium railway station in Walsall, on 20 October 2024.

Hotel housing worker Tyler English said Mr Majek had "almost seemed sad" before Ms Whyte was stabbed, but appeared to be "back to himself" in a car park after she was taken to hospital.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Ms Whyte was stabbed 11 times in the head, with one wound so deep it pierced her brain stem.

Giving evidence on Thursday, Mr English, who worked for Serco, said Mr Majek - whom he knew as DC - was "very low" when he saw him in the hotel between 21:00 and 22:00 BST on the night of the attack.

He said: "Normally, what I would do is just go around and check the morale of everybody that's there. That's when I noticed he wasn't, I guess, in the best of moods. So I just asked are you OK? There was no response."

The jury heard Mr English went to the station that night and put Ms Whyte in a recovery position, after being alerted by two other residents.

He said: "Shortly after Rhiannon had been taken to hospital, I went back to the hotel, again just doing due diligence," he said. "That's when I saw 'DC' again with a few others.

"It was in the parking lot near the side of the hotel."

Asked by prosecution KC Michelle Heeley what Mr Majek was doing, he said: "At this point it was just like drinking, smoking, and just chatting amongst his group of friends."

He said music was being played through a speaker and the group were "almost like having a good time in a sense".

He said: "His mood was definitely a lot better, seeing him in the parking lot versus earlier in the evening. I went up to the group, including him, and kind of like shook their hands."

Mr English initially told the court the defendant was drinking during the gathering, but later added he was not certain that was the case.

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Gurdeep Garcha, Mr English said Mr Majek, who has an Arabic interpreter in court, could hold "fluent" conversations in English.

Mr Garcha asked if Mr Majek had been happy to be seen in a public place, and Mr English replied: "Yes."

A colleague of the victim said he saw the defendant "having a good time" after the incident

Consultant pathologist Brett Lockyer said the wound which killed Ms Whyte had penetrated more than halfway through her brain.

She was attacked just after 23:00 BST as she walked home from the Park Inn, where she had worked for about three months.

The defendant, who claims to be 19, had been living at the hotel which houses asylum seekers.

Dr Lockyer said the strike that entered Ms Whyte's brain stem caused internal bleeding.

He said the wound was estimated to be more than 7cm (2.75 inches) in length, and "penetrated the brain deeply" from the left to the right side.

Dr Lockyer also explained the "criss-cross shape" of the puncture wounds were consistent with a crosshead screwdriver.

"The most significant damage was to the brain stem itself. That's the area of the brain that keeps us alive," Dr Lockyer said.

"It's the part of the brain that contains the centres which regulate your heart and your breathing.

"This injury to the brainstem structures would therefore relate to the cause of Ms Whyte's death."

The trial continues.