A man who allegedly entered the UK on a small boat has been found guilty of the unprovoked murder of a British mother but cannot be sentenced due to uncertainty about his age. The attacked happened after the mother-of-one finished a late night shift on October 20 last year. Rhiannon Whyte, 27, was working in the same asylum hotel that her alleged murderer lived in. She was making the short walk from the Park Inn Hotel in Walsall to the town’s Bescot Stadium train station. Deng Chol Majek stabbed Rhiannon Whyte 23 times with a screwdriver as she talked to her best friend on the phone. 

Majek, who is from Sudan, entered the country illegally and has no documentation. Upon arrival in Britain in July last year, Majek told authorities his birthday was January 1 2006 – which would make him 19. But he had told German and Italian authorities he was born eight years earlier, on January 1 1998, making him 27. Prosecutors claimed this was evidence he was lying about his age, the Daily Mail has reported. 

Mr Justice Soole said he wanted to try to establish Majek’s true age before sentencing but prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said bone density scans were needed as part of age verification tests, and that Majek had so far been “uncooperative”. 

He said he would still require a pre-sentence report to determine the minimum term for Majek’s mandatory life sentence for murder. Majek will be sentenced on December 15. 

In his trial, Majek mounted a risible defence to the overwhelming evidence against him, including a claim that a forensic expert was lying about finding Ms Whyte’s blood all over his clothes. He also denied it was him on CCTV stalking Ms Whyte to the station. Yet, he accepted that he was the man seen wearing identical clothing minutes earlier.

Police have been unable to identify any motive for the attack, but chilling security footage shows Majek staring at Ms Whyte in the hotel during her shift that night. 

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Attwell, of British Transport Police, 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.”

In a statement read outside court this afternoon, Rhiannon’s sister, Alex, said Majek had given the family a ‘life sentence’ after launching his “frenzied and unprovoked attack”.

She said Majek had “stalked, hunted and then preyed on our defenceless Rhiannon, before cornering her and unleashing a vicious attack”.

Ms Whyte added: “On that horrific day, our precious Rhiannon was shown no mercy.

“Throughout this trial we have been given no reason as to why he chose Rhiannon, no accountability for his actions and no remorse, she fought for her life and to save herself from this sick, twisted and cowardly human – who showed no regard for Rhiannon or human life.”

“We prayed and begged for her to live, but our hope is that Deng Chol Majek will spend his life alone and unloved.

“We now have to grieve her for longer than we got to love her, which will never make any sense to us.”