Migrant hotel worker was ‘barged into’ by asylum seeker ‘hours before stabbing her to death’

An asylum seeker accused of stabbing a hotel worker to death with a screwdriver was allegedly seen on CCTV shoulder barging into her hours before the attack, a court has heard.

Rhiannon Whyte, 27, who worked at Walsall’s Park Inn hotel, was stabbed to death 23 times on a deserted train platform after finishing her shift in October last year.

Deng Chol Majek, a Sudanese asylum seeker who was staying at the hotel, has been accused of murdering her after ‘tracking’ to the nearby Bescot Stadium station following the end of her shift at 11pm.

Footage played in court allegedly shows Majek barging into Ms Whyte as he walked past her and two other colleagues out of the hotel.

Duty manager Claire Taylor-Bevans added that ‘the resident we are talking about’ had ‘brushed past my arm and knocked Rhiannon’s arm’ as they returned inside the hotel.

The witness continued: ‘I looked at her (Rhiannon) and said “what happened?” and she said “He’s just knocked me’. I can remember her saying ‘What the f***?”‘

Mrs Taylor-Bevans said she saw Majek staring at staff in an ‘intimidating manner’ in the hours before the attack, with hotel chef Louise Brittle saying it was like he was ‘planning something’.

She told the court she saw a tall, dark-skinned man sitting at a high table, and wearing a silver top with the hood up, during her shift from 2pm to 10pm on October 20.

She said: ‘He was sitting relaxed in a high chair with one arm on the table and his foot on a bench… just staring.

‘He was just staring through us … like eyes wide open and he just couldn’t take his eyes off any of us.’

After learning Ms Whyte had been killed, Mrs Brittle was shown an image of the man who had been arrested.

‘I actually asked for the image,’ she told the court. ‘I was shown the exact image that I still have in my mind. It was of the person sitting opposite the bar area that night, staring at us all.’

Mrs Taylor-Bevans, said: ‘He was staring at all three of us behind the bar, spookily. Like through us – as though we weren’t there. I felt intimidated.’

She said she had reported the resident to the security team at the Serco-run hotel.

‘When we had finished serving the crisps and biscuits I went to the reception area and commented to (a member of the security staff) to say we all felt intimidated,’ she said.

After asking security to ‘keep an eye’ on the man, the witness said, she called her two female colleagues away from the bar area.

Majek denies murder and possession of an offensive weapon. The trial continues.

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