Siobhan Whyte can still hear the piercing screams bursting from her five-year-old grandson after telling him that his doting mother had not only been hurt - but would never be coming home again.

'That little child just broke and screamed out,' says Siobhan, the grieving mother of Rhiannon Whyte, who was stabbed to death with a screwdriver as she waited for her train home on October 20, 2024.

'We told him that we tried to save his mum, but that a bad man had hurt her and she'd have to go to heaven.'

Rhiannon was just 27 when her life was cut short in the cruellest of ways. The mother of one had just finished a late shift working at a hotel housing asylum seekers when she was ambushed by one of its residents.

Sudanese national Deng Chol Majek, who had arrived in the UK illegally just 11 weeks earlier, stalked Rhiannon to Bescot Stadium railway station in Walsall and launched a frenzied 90-second attack on the defenceless mother.

Armed with a screwdriver, he stabbed Rhiannon 23 times and left her for dead on an empty platform. 'I'd hoped to God that his face wasn't the last she saw,' says Siobhan. 'But it was.'

Her childhood best friend, Emma Cowley, was on the phone to Rhiannon as she came under attack and has been left traumatised by the high-pitched screams she heard on the other end of the line. 

Majek then returned to the Park Inn Hotel, where he was seen dancing and laughing with other asylum seekers. 'It was like he was celebrating and dancing on Rhiannon's grave,' tearful Siobhan says.

Rhiannon's loved ones are still reeling from the loss of the 'family-orientated' mother who had the 'kindest heart' and simply 'loved to love'. Their grief was exacerbated by Majek consistently lying in court: about his age, his reasons for claiming asylum in Britain and, worst of all, his culpability. 

But in January, Majek was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 29 years, with the judge telling him the CCTV and DNA evidence against him was 'overwhelming'. 

Today, speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Siobhan says: 'I feel like it will never be enough. He got a minimum of 29 years but we've got a life sentence. The fact he is alive in a prison that we are paying for and my daughter is dead makes me so angry.'

Siobhan recalls locking eyes with the monster in the dock. Staring back at her was the face of evil who bludgeoned her daughter to death.

'We just had to sit and face him,' she says. 'What we had to hear has traumatised all of us. We had to hear the worst details you could possibly hear and and he just did not care, he showed no remorse.'

Siobhan's fury towards her daughter's killer leaves her unable to even say his name. 

Instead, she refers to him as the 'sociopath' and the 'monster'. 'To be deemed sane and do this, he is definitely psychotic,' she adds.

'We don't know why he targeted her. There was absolutely no reason. There was no argument. He didn't know her. She didn't know him. He just stalked her for hours.'

CCTV showed Majek loitering around the reception area throughout the evening, staring intensely at Rhiannon. At one point, he knocked into her when she went out for a vape with two colleagues. 

One colleague later told how he was 'spookily' staring at all three workers and they 'all felt intimidated'.

When Rhiannon finished her shift at 11pm, Majek sprung into action. He followed her from the hotel to the train station, waiting for her to be left alone.

Rhiannon called her best friend, Emma, on her way to the station. She recalled hearing sudden silence, then a high-pitched, terrified scream, and then silence again. 

Emma asked Rhiannon if she was OK, but all she heard was more screams and then silence again. Then the phone line went dead.

In a barbaric attack, the screwdriver-wielding maniac had repeatedly stabbed Rhiannon 23 times - including 19 in the head, one wound so deep it pierced her brain stem.

In a state of panic, Emma desperately tried to call Rhiannon's mother, while she screamed at her husband to call 999.

Siobhan missed Emma's call but the friend managed to get through to Rhiannon's little sister who sounded the alarm.

The family frantically called the hotel, police and local hospitals - desperate to find out what had happened to Rhiannon. 

The hotel worker was found slumped on the platform by a train driver who pulled into the station. Nothing could be done to save her. 

Rhiannon was rushed to hospital and battled for three days in a coma in ICU while surrounded by her loving family. 

To her family's disgust, while Rhiannon was fighting for survival, Majek was celebrating. Immediately after ambushing Rhiannon, he bought a beer from an off-licence and spent the night dancing round the hotel. 

Siobhan gets emotional as she recalls her eldest grandson sitting with Rhiannon while she lay unresponsive in hospital. 

She could not respond to her cousin sharing happy memories, but out of nowhere, a single tear fell down her cheek.

'After he left, Rhiannon declined,' Siobhan says. 'It was like she was saying goodbye to everyone.'

Rhiannon passed away in hospital at 6.38pm on October 23, 2024, leaving behind her then five-year-old son, her mother and four siblings: Emma, Daniel, Alexandra and Cara.

'Losing Rhiannon killed me inside to be honest,' Siobhan says. 'But the hardest thing was explaining to this little boy that his mum had gone to heaven.'

Rhiannon's sister sat her nephew on her lap and explained that Rhiannon was suffering with a 'poorly brain'.

'He panicked and said, 'I need my vitamins - I don't want to get a poorly brain'. 

'We told him that we tried to save her but that a bad man had hurt her and she'd have to go to heaven. 

'That little child just broke and screamed.

'We sat with him all night, laying with him in bed and talking about Rhiannon and him.

'That was was extremely hard. Even now he goes to bed every night with a teddy bear with her picture on.

'He doesn't know the full circumstances, obviously, because no child should ever know that. But he does know that she's gone to heaven, that she loves him, and he's well looked after.'

Rhiannon's son now lives with his auntie Alex, whom Siobhan says he has a 'fantastic relationship' with and is 'settled'. 

But she admits his mother's death is having a severe impact. 

'Will he ever recover from it?' she asks. 'Probably not. My worry is, will he grow up and find out the truth?'

Plagued by grief, Rhiannon's family would have to wait 15 months before seeing Majek sentenced for his remorseless murder. 

Facing him at trial was agonising for Siobhan and the family. 'It was horrible. It made me angry. It made all of us angry. Us as a family, we remained dignified and calm in that courtroom.

'The stuff that we had to hear has traumatised all of us. We had to hear the worst details we could possibly hear. And he just stood and denied everything and lied. He called the forensics liars.

'We just had to sit and listen and face him and he showed no remorse. He just didn't care. He said it wasn't him. He had a bit of a cocky attitude about him, he denied it was him on the CCTV, he denied it was Rhiannon's blood, everything.'

What did you feel when she stared at him? 'Absolutely nothing,' she replies, reluctant to waste her breath on him. 

But she adds: 'Hate and anger... I can't explain how I actually felt but my love for Rhiannon will always be more than the hate I feel for this person.

'We turned and looked at him and he did absolutely nothing. He'd look and then turn away. The only time he apparently dropped his head was when I did a victim impact statement and mentioned Rhiannon's little boy.

'It was so hard for us as a family, even for the police, to watch.'

Rhiannon's family have been left with more questions than answers. There was no clear motive for the attack and they will never understand why he chose her as his victim.

Siobhan's fury towards Prime Minister Starmer is palpable. She is furious that Majek, who had been denied asylum in Germany, was allowed to enter Britain illegally on a small boat. 

It took him just 11 weeks to murder a British citizen in cold blood.

Rhiannon had taken the job at the asylum seeker hotel at around the same time Majek arrived in Britain. She loved to help people and was compassionate towards the migrants who had fled their countries.

As a teenager, Rhiannon had dreams of joining the British Army. But it was her sisters that talked her out of it, warning her she was putting her life at risk by becoming a soldier.

That she was murdered after settling for the seemingly safer hospitality sector is a cruel twist of fate.

'It's heartbreaking,' says Siobhan. 'She was just helping these people - and it was her help that took her life.'

Rhiannon had recently moved home to live with her mum in Walsall after suffering from a 'meltdown'. 

She found a job at The Park Inn Hotel and had only been there around three months before she was killed.

'She was content,' Siobhan recalls. 'She got on with everybody and made a little group of friends. She just wanted to help people.

'The only thing about Rhiannon was she didn't really see the danger in things.'

In contrast, Siobhan did see the dangers. 'I'm a mum but she was 27, I couldn't talk her out of it. To her, she was making a living, earning money and she was helping people.

'She had a group of five illegal migrants and they used to confide in Rhiannon and tell her they had come over because they were gay, or whatever was going on and they wanted to bring their families over and settle.

'Rhiannon being Rhiannon, she had a soft heart and she would listen and feel sorry for them.

'But the person that did it, she didn't know him.'

Siobhan's anger is directed at the hotel, Serco - the private company that runs the asylum seeker accommodation for the Home Office - and the members of staff that were on that night.

'They said they felt intimidated and scared, but they went off and just left Rhiannon. One drove off in a car and the other got in a car with their brother. 

'As a mum, I would have made sure that she got home safe because something wasn't right. I am angry at them. 

'There used to be a security guy that used to walk her over to the train station. He left after Rhiannon died because he was so distraught. But the one night she walked over there on her own, a 60-second walk, it happened.'

The night of the attack is a blur. But when Siobhan later learned the extent of her daughter's injuries, it broke her.

'A lot I can't remember, it is like a brain block.

'I was just shocked. I just couldn't believe firstly that she'd been stabbed, and then the amount of times.

'He stabbed her through the brain. It's just one of them things I'll never get over. But it took less than 90 seconds to commit this attack. I'm adamant he must have done something like this before.'

Siobhan has been through hell and back, but has the fondest memories of her daughter.

'One thing that will always stand out with Rhiannon, her sisters say it, her brothers say it, my whole family say it, is that she had the kindest heart. She didn't like to argue. She would walk away from an argument. 

'Rhiannon just went along with life. There was never any complication.

'I come from a big Irish family and we were always with family growing up.

'She was always going to see her Nan when she was off work, she was always going to see family.

'She just loved to help people, especially her family.'

When her baby was born in October 2019, she always 'tried to give him the best', says Siobhan.

'She did everything for him. They were always out. She was always buying him things. She was always playing with him. She just gave her all.

'But it wasn't just him. It was her nieces and nephews as well. She showed her love in buying things and playing games.

'We always had big family parties, we were just a big family unit. Rhiannon liked to be with the grown ups.

'She liked to be in the middle of everything and make everyone happy.

'One of the managers from the hotel said you could tell when Rhiannon was on shift, because there was always people laughing.

'She just had the purest heart.

'She had the same friends she grew up with were friends from nursery. Sadly it was one of these girls that heard her screams.'

Siobhan is campaigning for change. She says she is being dodged by Starmer, who she has attempted to contact.

'Why are these people not ID checked, why are they not medically checked, why are they not criminally checked, and why are they allowed in?' she says.

'He came after 11 weeks, he was denied asylum in Germany and Italy. He was arrested in Germany. Why was he denied asylum? Why was he allowed to go to France, and to come here?'

Her aim is to create a Rhiannon's Law and leave a legacy for her daughter. The law would provide for the immediate detention and vetting of migrants on arrival. 

Border officials would carry out more rigorous checks for evidence of criminal history and asylum seekers would be screened for infection diseases.

'When I'm gone, I want her little boy to grow up and think my nan and my mum's family did this for my mum to help children like me.

'It's not just impacted her little boy, it's her nieces and nephews. They're really struggling as well. These little boys just can't take it in.'

• Siobhan Whyte has set up a GoFundMe to support children whose parents have been killed. To donate, visit: gofund.me/b7e77e469