Archive · 30 Jan 2026
Sudanese asylum seeker jailed for murdering hotel worker
A man named Deng Chol Majek, who was seeking asylum in the UK, was put in jail for a very long time.
He did something very bad: he hurt and killed a woman named Rhiannon Whyte who worked at a hotel where he was staying.
He used a screwdriver to hurt her many times.
The judge said it was a very mean and scary thing to do.
Some people who don't like immigrants were outside the court when the judge made his decision.
The government is trying to make rules to stop putting people like Majek in hotels while they wait for their asylum cases to be decided.
Deng Chol Majek, a Sudanese asylum seeker, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 29 years for murdering Rhiannon Whyte, a 27-year-old hotel worker.
Majek stabbed Whyte 23 times with a screwdriver after she finished her shift at the hotel where he was being housed.
The murder occurred in October 2024, and the sentencing took place on January 30, 2025, at Coventry Crown Court.
Anti-immigration protesters gathered outside the court during the sentencing.
The Labour government has promised to clamp down on illegal immigration and stop placing asylum seekers in hotels by 2029.
- Who
- Deng Chol Majek, a Sudanese asylum seeker, murdered Rhiannon Whyte, a 27-year-old hotel worker.
- What
- Deng Chol Majek was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 29 years for the murder of Rhiannon Whyte.
- When
- The murder occurred in October 2024, and the sentencing took place on January 30, 2025.
- Where
- The crime took place at a railway station in central England, and the sentencing occurred at Coventry Crown Court.
- Why
- Deng Chol Majek stabbed Rhiannon Whyte 23 times with a screwdriver after she finished her shift at the hotel where he was being housed.
- Victim
- Rhiannon Whyte, 27
- Perpetrator
- Deng Chol Majek, Sudanese asylum seeker
- Crime
- Murder
- Weapon
- Screwdriver
- Sentence
- Life imprisonment with a minimum of 29 years
- Location of Crime
- Railway station in central England
- Date of Crime
- October 2024
- Date of Sentencing
- January 30, 2025