An asylum seeker accused of murdering a hotel worker has denied lying about his age, claiming a date of birth suggesting he is aged 27 was “just assumed” by Italian authorities after he was rescued from the sea.
Deng Chol Majek, who says he is 19 and that he left Sudan aged 16, is alleged to have murdered Rhiannon Whyte using a screwdriver at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium railway station on October 20 last year.
Giving evidence in the second week of his trial, Majek repeatedly denied that he was a man caught on CCTV wearing clothing described by the Crown as “identical” to his.
Wolverhampton Crown Court has heard that Majek came to the UK in July last year because his claim for asylum was refused by the German authorities, and was housed at Walsall’s Park Inn hotel, where Ms Whyte worked.
Prosecutors allege he “tracked” the 27-year-old victim to the station shortly after her shift finished at 11pm, stabbed her more than 20 times on a platform, and then visited a shop to buy beer.
During his second day in the witness box, Majek told jurors he had a German identity document by August 2023 which recorded his date of birth as January 1 1998.
But he claimed that date, which would make him 27, was wrong and was due to a “mistake” by officials in Italy.
“I had a German ID and it had my name on it,” Majek told the court through a Sudanese Arabic interpreter. “The Italian authorities moved me to Germany, therefore they passed on my information including my name.”
Majek, who maintains that his real date of birth is January 1 2006, added: “The date of birth (recorded in Italy and Germany) was wrong from the beginning and I was told that I am not going to be able to fix it.
“When I got saved in the sea by the Italian authorities they were talking to me and I wasn’t understanding, and they put this date of birth without asking me about my actual date of birth.
“They didn’t ask me for my date of birth, they just assumed it.”
The defendant, who denies murder and possessing a screwdriver as an offensive weapon, said of his time in Italy: “I wasn’t provided with an interpreter.
“I was just saying ‘yes, yes, yes’ and I wasn’t understanding anything and they have just written my date of birth like this.”
Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC put it to Majek that he was not aged 16 when he left Sudan and that the reason he had said he was born in 1998 was because that was the truth.
Majek denied both suggestions, telling the court he was 16 when he left his home country, and that his year of birth being recorded as 1998 was an error made by the Italian authorities.
During further questioning from Ms Heeley, Majek denied that he had bumped into Ms Whyte while leaving the hotel, and said he had not been staring at her and two female colleagues during her shift.
“I am telling you it wasn’t me,” he told the jury. “I didn’t cause any problems, I didn’t do anything. I never touched her.”
The defence closed its case on Wednesday and jurors were told that closing speeches and the judge’s summing up will begin on Thursday.
