Deng Chol Majek stabbed Rhiannon Skye Whyte in the head 19 times with a screwdriver, and 23 times in total, in October 2024.

He was caught on CCTV following her from the Park Inn hotel, in Walsall - where he lived and she worked - to Bescot Stadium station.

Majek was handed a life sentence on Friday at Coventry Crown Court.

Ms Whyte's family described Majek as "demonic and inhuman" in a statement to the court.

"The pain and suffering we have experienced since the horrific attack is something we still have to address every day, and I cannot see a time when this will not be the case," her family said.

Ms Whyte's sister told the court that Majek had carried out a "vicious and pitiless assault on a terrified and defenceless young woman who he claims never to have spoken to or noticed".

"Her name will not be forgotten, she will not be a distant memory. We will keep her alive in our memory," she said.

"You, however, are an evil nightmare that will be put aside, known only for your cruel and malicious act."

Majek showed no emotion as Ms Whyte's sister addressed him directly, referring to footage showing him partying and dancing hours later.

"You brutalised Rhiannon and then partied as if nothing had happened," she said.

Ms Whyte's mother Donna also gave a statement in court, telling Majek "let me see you dancing now".

A court heard Majek, who is from Sudan and claimed to be 19 years old, had previously been reported to hotel security after "spookily" staring at three female staff for prolonged periods.

Ms Whyte, 27, died three days after the attack, having been found by the driver and guard of a train which pulled in about five minutes later.

High Court judge Michael Soole said: "You have provided the court with no explanation for your conduct, nor any reliable basis to consider any suggested mitigating factors.

"I see no basis for this statutory mitigating factor which arises where the intent was to cause serious bodily harm rather than to kill.

"Having regard to every aspect of your conduct, before, during and after the assault on Rhiannon, I am sure that your intent was to kill."

Justice Soole concluded Majek was actually aged between 25 and 28 based on a date of birth provided as part of a German asylum application, despite his claim to have been 18 at the time of the murder.

"I therefore sentence you on the basis that you were aged 26 at the date of Rhiannon's murder," he said.

"For the offence of murder, the law imposes a sentence of imprisonment for life."

Majek, who is about 10 inches taller than Ms Whyte, walked to the Caldmore Green area of Walsall after the attack to buy beer and was recorded apparently wiping blood from his trousers.

He returned to the hotel at 12.13am, changed his bloodstained flip-flops for trainers, and was seen laughing and dancing.

Carla Harris, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Rhiannon Whyte should have been able to go to work and come home safely - but Deng Chol Majek robbed her of her life and future.

"He attacked her for no reason, and callously left her bleeding on a station platform. He then appeared to rejoice in his actions, having been caught laughing and dancing on footage an hour later.

"Although the stabbing itself was not captured on CCTV, the prosecution case against Chol Majek included DNA evidence, witness testimony and CCTV showing him stalking Rhiannon to the station and returning to the hotel in his distinctive bloodied clothing."

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Ms Whyte's family members arrived at Coventry Crown Court wearing white t-shirts with her picture on them, while groups of people waved England flags outside the building.

Majek was originally found guilty in October of murdering the mother of a six-year-old son, and police at the time said he had shown no remorse.

The jury deliberated for two hours and five minutes before unanimously convicting him of murder and possessing a screwdriver as an offensive weapon.

Majek is believed to have entered the UK by small boat less than three months before the attack.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: "Crimes like this are the consequence of mass illegal immigration."

The legendary author died unexpectedly in October at the age of 88 from injuries sustained from a fall.

On Friday, stars from the film, sport and literary worlds turned out to pay their respects.

In attendance were actors Danny Dyer, David Tennant, Aidan Turner, Bella Maclean and Victoria Smurfit, who star in Disney TV show Rivals. The show is adapted from Cooper's 1988 novel of the same name.

Arsenal legend Tony Adams, comedian Helen Lederer and actress Lisa Maxwell were among the first to arrive.

Dame Jilly Cooper's literary agent Felicity Blunt also arrived alongside her husband, actor Stanley Tucci. Blunt wore a tote bag that said "I love Jilly Cooper" on it.

Tucci paid tribute to the late author, telling reporters: "She lived an incredible life.

"She also changed the lives of so many people for the better with her books, my wife being one of them.

"She was an extraordinary person, a brilliant writer, nice person and naughty."

Queen Camilla, a longstanding friend of Cooper's, wore a blue coat dress to the memorial.

The pair had a close friendship, with the Queen telling a literary festival shortly after her death: "She came to a party here a few years ago where, I hope, she uttered her immortal line, 'I'm going to get so absolutely plastered tonight, darling. I love you so much, I want to see two of you'.

"Dear Jilly, how we'd love to have seen just one of you here with us today."

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The Queen's former husband, Andrew Parker-Bowles, and their son Tom were also in attendance.

In a touching moment, the Queen posed with a picture of Cooper alongside the Dean of Southwark, Mark Oakley.

As the day wore on, other famous names from sport and TV arrived - including broadcasters Gyles Brandreth and Clare Balding.

Mr Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, will "never let you down" as chair of the country's central bank, the president said in a Truth Social post.

It ends months of speculation on whether he would choose a puppet to force through US interest rate cuts.

Rumours around his potential appointment played out on financial markets overnight and contributed to a strengthening of the Trump-hit dollar and downwards shifts in many dollar-priced commodities such as gold and oil.

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Mr Warsh is widely seen as a cautious advocate of interest rate cuts.

They are being demanded by the president to boost economic growth.

He has also spoken of the need to shrink the Fed's balance sheet - a policy that is generally supportive of higher interest rates, helping to balance his possible approach.

He has, however, spoken of the need to loosen post-financial crisis regulations on banks.

The market reaction suggests that Mr Trump's pick is not seen as the champion for interest rate cuts that investors had feared, potentially eroding some concerns about the independence of the Federal Reserve.

"I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best", Mr Trump wrote.

"On top of everything else, he is 'central casting, and he will never let you down."

The appointment is important globally because the fate of the world's largest economy has ramifications for everything in the financial system.

The central bank is a crucial balancing tool - especially in an era of high uncertainty, and most of that emanates from the United States itself.

A new Fed chair is needed because the incumbent is due to stand down in May after two terms.

President Trump appointed Jay Powell during his first stint in the White House, but he has long criticised the Fed under Mr Powell's leadership and threatened to fire him on many occasions.

Mr Powell is currently the subject of a Department of Justice investigation into Fed renovation costs - an inquiry he has dismissed as being part of the Trump administration's efforts to influence decisions by securing a voting majority on its rate-setting panel.

The political row has seen both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate's influential banking committee come out in support of Mr Powell.

It is the same committee that is now tasked with saying yea or nay to Mr Warsh's appointment.

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Nick Kennedy, currency strategist at Lloyds Banking Group, said: "Warsh is my preferred candidate but it didn't look promising for a while.

"From a policy perspective, his track record is more on the hawkish side [more cautious over rate cuts] and he is academically aligned with the administration on wanting a smaller balance sheet.

"In the interview process you have to be aligned with what Trump wants on policy rates. I don't think this is a role you would want to step into if you were in conflict with that.

"So, that idea that this is good for the dollar is going to be short-lived," he concluded.

Police officers working with the Environmental Agency (EA) arrested a 69-year-old in Andover and a 54-year-old in Slough on Thursday as part of an investigation into large-scale fly-tipping near Kidlington.

The men have been arrested on environmental and money laundering offences, the EA said.

Both men have since been released on conditional bail.

The arrests follow an investigation into the dumping of a mountain of waste on a site between the River Cherwell and the A34, a busy road running through Oxford and Birmingham.

Officers from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit executed the warrants, working with police from the Thames Valley Police, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary and Surrey Police.

Emma Viner, enforcement and investigations manager in the EA's national environmental crime unit, said: "The illegal dump at Kidlington was an atrocious and deliberate attack on our environment, and the Environment Agency shares the community's anger at this horrific crime.

"Our teams have been working tirelessly with the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit on this investigation. These joint efforts have resulted in further arrests, which are another vital step in collecting new evidence and progressing our investigation."

The pile of rubbish was estimated to have been at least 60m long, 15m wide and 10m high.

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said the dumping was "appalling and has caused significant damage to the environment and distress to the local community".

"I welcome these arrests - an important step in securing justice for local residents," she said.

"The government is committed to stamping out this type of criminality across the country, by boosting funds to tackle waste crime, hiring more officers and introducing tougher checks and penalties for those who break the law."

The cost of removing the waste was estimated to be more than the entire annual budget of the local council, which is around £25m.

The incident has sparked fears that toxins could leak into the River Cherwell and the wider Thames catchment.

A 39-year-old man was arrested in November in connection with the illegal waste dump.

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Fly-tipping has become an issue of increasing public concern, as criminal gangs seek to make a profit by presenting themselves as private refuse collectors while disposing of waste illegally.

Sky News has reported on the growing problem of waste crime.

In October, the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee warned that organised crime gangs are illegally dumping millions of tonnes of waste across the countryside every year.

Our view, from a Mercy Air helicopter delivering food aid to starving communities surrounded by submerged farms in southern Mozambique's Gaza province, is devastating.

"This island is too big to be evacuated. But all their rice fields and food is from outside, where it is flooded," our pilot, Samuel Lips, tells us as we fly into Mexinguine.

Mexinguine is not a natural island but one created by climate change.

The roads connecting it to the rest of the country have disappeared, and its population is now squeezed into the pockets of higher ground that remain above water.

"That is a soccer field. Right next to it, completely submerged, is the hospital," says Sam, as he gears up to land on a narrow patch of dry land near a makeshift clinic.

The sound of the helicopter is a welcomed disruption. The elderly, teenagers and children gather around to receive the buckets of basic sustenance before we even hit the ground.

'We need food'

In the distance, lines of people eagerly traverse the neighbourhoods turned marshes to join the growing crowd.

"We need food. We, as responders, need food to distribute. We need water. We need shelter because there is no privacy for people. We need medicine," nurse Luis Mauricio tells us in front of the two-room clinic serving the suffering population.

Luis is surrounded by patients complaining of symptoms of infectious diseases, worsened by the swamp-like conditions. As the water begins to recede, the problems are growing.

"We are alive, but the floods are troubling us. We are coughing, we don't have a place to live, we don't have food, we don't have water - the water we are drinking is contaminated because of these floods," says one of his patients, Raqualina Tamele.

"We have received children from ages zero to 17 with different diseases," Luis adds, surrounded by nursing mothers and children.

"Now, we are having a lot of diarrhoea, vomiting and some cases of malaria. It has been persistent.

"There are a lot of people, and they are sick. There is no food in this community - it is hard."

Charities face daunting task

Aid workers are scrambling to access cut-off areas to provide much-needed support, but are facing a mammoth task.

At least 400,000 people have been affected in Gaza province alone, and an area roughly the size of Cyprus - 10,000 square kilometres - is covered by floodwater.

"Climate change is really impacting a lot on the weather, and we are really feeling it. Being near the sea with a lot of surrounding countries makes our situation even worse," says Gaspar Sitefane, the country director for Water Aid in Mozambique, in Marracuene - a flood-hit district of Maputo province submerged by the Inkomati River.

"Whatever rains come to South Africa to Zimbabwe to Eswatini to Malawi, the water then comes through Mozambique to reach the sea, and when it comes it takes almost everything - people, our animals, our farms - almost everything."

Gaspar's own family home has been flooded. He tells us there are few Mozambicans who have not been touched by this tragedy.

We meet Gaspar at a school-turned-shelter, which is housing hundreds of evacuees who have lost everything.

The Mozambican government has postponed the start of the 2026 school year by nearly a month. The floods have affected 431 schools, with 80 currently used as shelter centres and 218 cut off. Some 420,000 students remain affected nationwide.

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At the Gwazamutini shelter, children are lining up to try on clothes donated by teachers. This school is now home to over 300 children, who are likely to be joined by more as new evacuees arrive in the region.

"The people of the area say that 1977 is the last time we had floods like this," says Shafi Sadat, the mayor of Marracuene, who has spent days rescuing thousands of people from the floodwaters with the support of his friends and constituents.

He adds: "We got 3,228 people out, and now we have to feed them - in the morning, afternoon and night.

"There is a lot of damage - in agriculture we've lost everything. We don't have anything. These people live with agriculture."