Rhiannon Whyte case: Asylum seeker sentenced to at least 29 years for murdering hotel worker

LONDON, Jan 30: A Sudanese asylum seeker was jailed on Friday for a minimum of 29 years for murdering Rhiannon Whyte, a woman who worked at the hotel in central England, where he and other migrants were being housed.

Anti-immigration activists have seized on other criminal cases involving asylum seekers, predominantly young men, in hotels to argue that they are a danger to nearby communities.

Last summer, a number of protests at asylum hotels across England – sparked by the arrest of an Ethiopian asylum seeker for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman – turned violent.

The Labour government, nervous of the rise of the anti-immigration Reform UK party in opinion polls, has promised to clamp down on illegal immigration and, by 2029, to stop placing asylum seekers in hotels while their cases are processed.

Deng Chol Majek followed Rhiannon Whyte, 27, to a railway station in October 2024 after she finished her shift.

He stabbed Rhiannon Whyte 23 times to the head, chest and arm with a screwdriver. She died in hospital three days later.

Majek was convicted in October and sentenced on Friday to life imprisonment with a minimum of 29 years at Coventry Crown Court, where some anti-immigration protesters gathered outside for the hearing.

Judge Michael Soole said the murder was “particularly vicious” and told Majek there had been a “chilling composure in every aspect of your behaviour”.