Rhiannon Whyte's mother slams Labour for 'allowing illegals to come over' two years on from daughter's murder

Oct 20, 2026 - 11:56
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Rhiannon Whyte's mother slams Labour for 'allowing illegals to come over' two years on from daughter's murder

The mother of an asylum hotel worker who was killed by an illegal migrant has told GB News she feels like she’s serving a life sentence, as she fights for a change in asylum law.

Rhiannon Whyte was attacked by Sudanese migrant Deng Majek on October 20, 2024, as she waited for her train home.


The young mother died from her injuries three days later.

Majek had been staying at the Park Inn Hotel, where Rhiannon worked, but CCTV showed him staring at her that day as she handed out snacks.



During the murder trial, a witness told Wolverhampton Crown Court they felt scared and "worried he was going to do something that night".

They even informed the hotel’s security staff that they "all felt intimidated".

Now, two years on since Rhiannon’s death, her mother, Siobhan Whyte, has exclusively told GB News the story of that day and her campaign for Rhiannon’s Law.

Describing the day Rhiannon was attacked, Siobhan said: "My phone was going, ringing late at night, and I thought it was her to tell me she was on her way home, and it was her friend, Emma, to say that they'd heard screaming.

"I got the phone call from the police to say they were with her and that she was going to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and it was life-threatening or life-changing.

"It just broke me, but you still think she's going to be all right? It's Rhiannon, she bounces back from everything and all the way to the hospital I kept thinking she’ll be alright, but we didn't know what had happened or the severity of it."


Siobhan Whyte



After Rhiannon had finished her shift at 11pm that night, she walked across the road from the asylum hotel towards the Bescot Stadium railway station to catch her train home.

Unbeknownst to her, Majek had waited outside, followed her across the road, through the car park, and up onto the train station platform before attacking Rhiannon with a screwdriver.

She sustained more than 20 stab wounds, and died three days later from a brain stem injury.

Siobhan told GB News: "Alex [Siobhan’s daughter] parked up, came in and she said, ‘Mom, I can see her, she's in Resus’. She wasn't tubed up or anything.

"After a couple of hours, the consultants came in and said that Rihanna had been stabbed. I said, ‘what do you mean she's been stabbed, she was just coming home from work?’ and they said she'd been stabbed in the head and they were going to give her six hours and we needed to get her family up there.

"Then it was like six hours, 12 hours, 24. In my heart of hearts, I just kept hoping she'd be okay. On the Tuesday, they did further tests and then that evening, they told us not to leave. We asked if she could be an organ donor, but I was told no, because she was evidence, so he [Majek] took that away from her as well."

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Rhiannon Whyte; Deng Majek


Majek was seen on CCTV leaving the train station, throwing Rhiannon’s phone into the river as he left.

He then walked to a shop to buy alcohol and returned to the hotel.

As the emergency services arrived, footage recovered by the police showed the Sudanese asylum seeker laughing and dancing to music in the hotel and the car park.

Recalling the footage, Siobhan told GB News it was like watching Majek "dancing on her grave".

She said: "You watch him going back into the hotel, knock on people's doors, change his shoes, and then he comes out dancing and smiling. Then you see him dancing in reception, then you see him dancing walking down the corridor to his room, and then in the car park with the blue lights in the background trying to help Rhiannon.

"He was dancing on her grave, I think. I don't want him to die, I want him to suffer. The anger I feel towards him, I think he's given me the incentive to keep fighting because I can't keep, we can't keep, letting this happen, you know. I hate him. I hate him with every ounce that I have in me."



Deng Chol Majek



Forensic scientists found Rhiannon’s blood on Majek’s jacket, trousers, shoes, and jewellery.

DNA recovered from the swabbing of his fingernails was also a match.

Jurors at Wolverhampton Crown Court deliberated for just two hours and five minutes before reaching a unanimous guilty verdict in October 2025.

Recounting the trial, Siobhan said: "He denied every single bit of it. It made me feel angry and guilty because I wasn't there to help her. Angry at him because of the consistent lies and what he's put us through. Why? I just want to know why, you know?

"We couldn't have Rihanna's funeral for four months. We had her funeral on a Friday, and on the Monday after there was an admin case at the court. My daughter went, and he was meant to have come up on a video link, and the prison guard said his [Majek’s] words were, ‘today is not the day’.

"I was furious when I heard it. Anybody else would have been pulled out of their cells and made to appear."


\u200b Elizabeth Cook of Deng Chol Majek (left) being questioned by defence KC Gurdeep Garcha at Wolverhampton Crown Court


She added: "He was very arrogant, he said he fled South Sudan to North Sudan for his safety with his mum, his 10 siblings, his pregnant wife.

"I think it was all just lies. It makes me angry, because at the time, I was so wrapped up in wanting justice that I couldn't understand why he was lying about his age, and it just angers me that I felt like he was dictating."

In recent months, Siobhan has turned her attention to campaigning for Rhiannon’s Law, which proposes the detention of undocumented asylum seekers whilst their claims are processed.

She told GB News: "If the government are going to keep allowing these illegals to come over, they should be stopped, they should be detained, they should be medically checked, ID checked, criminally checked, and not allowed out to wander.

"They should be put in a barracks, not near a school, not near children or women, and if they fail the checks, deported back. They go into HMOs, we don't know where the HMOs are.

"Hotels are closing down, where are they going? When we said to the Home Office, ‘detain them’, they said, ‘what about their human rights? They've got human rights'. What about our human rights? Because as far as I'm concerned, the minute they come onto these shores illegally, they are committing a crime."


Deng Chol Majek


Border Security Minister Anna Turley met with Ms Whyte on September 3.

The government says more than 80,000 returns of people with no right to be in the UK have been recorded in the two years since the July 2024 election, and told GB News that joint efforts have prevented over 48,000 channel-crossing attempts and seized 1,100 boats and engines since the election.

Reflecting on the meeting with the Home Office, Siobhan said: "I came out of there feeling hopeful that maybe they listened to us as a family. This was on a Thursday, and on the Sunday, we had an influx of boats into Portsmouth, so it felt like we'd just been kicked in the teeth, really.

"We just want answers, you know, I get people saying, ‘you've got justice. He got life and 29 years’. No, I will serve life because he's taken my daughter away."

A Home Office spokesperson told GB News: "The murder of Rhiannon Whyte was an abhorrent crime, and our thoughts are with her loved ones. This vile criminal is behind bars where he belongs, and he rightly received the strictest punishment of a life sentence.

"We share the public’s anger about Majek’s heinous actions. That is precisely why we are bearing down on small boat crossings, removing record numbers of foreign criminals, and closing every asylum hotel in the country."