Beach Rape Described as 'Cynical, Predatory, Callous'
Two men allegedly raped a woman repeatedly on Brighton beach while a third man recorded the assault, which a court described as "cynical, predatory and callous." The incident occurred on 4 October 2025.
Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, an Egyptian national residing in Horsham, West Sussex, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape and to sharing intimate films of the victim. Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, an Iranian national living in Crewe, Cheshire, and Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, also Egyptian and living in Horsham, each deny two counts of rape.
The trial of the three men, all asylum seekers, commenced at Hove Crown Court on Tuesday.
The jury was informed that the defendants targeted the woman in the early hours after she became separated from her friends during a night out.
Al-Danasurt is accused of filming the alleged rapes and subsequently sending the recordings to Ahmadi's phone. During a police interview, Ahmadi invited officers to view the videos, asserting that they would demonstrate his innocence.
Jurors were told they would be shown the footage during the trial.
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters stated that the complainant was "repeatedly abused for sexual gratification and entertainment". She added that the woman was intoxicated and "to all intents and purposes, incapacitated" at the time of the assaults.
"Al-Danasurt himself in his police interview recognised that she was unable to even stand without support."
Judge Christine Henson KC cautioned jurors against discounting the complainant's testimony due to her consumption of alcohol or illegal drugs.
"The lived experience of a sexual assault may well not be remembered in a neat, consistent, forensic parcel so you will want to bear that in mind,"
she said.
'Crawled off the beach'
Jurors heard that Alshafe and Ahmadi took the woman behind a beach shack where they raped her repeatedly. Although the complainant could not definitively state whether Al-Danasurt also raped her, the prosecution alleges he was fully aware of the events.
DNA evidence from Alshafe and Ahmadi matched samples taken during a forensic medical examination of the woman, while forensic evidence relating to Al-Danasurt was inconclusive.
The woman told police she was spat on, kicked, and had her throat grabbed during the attacks, and that the men were laughing.
"The woman 'crawled off the beach' and was captured on CCTV leaving the beach alongside Alshafe,"
Llewellyn-Waters said.
She added that shortly after they appeared on camera, Ahmadi used Google Translate on his phone to instruct the woman to "unlock it," presumably referring to her phone, which she was reluctant to do.
All three defendants were known to each other prior to the incident and were housed by the Home Office in the same hotel at the time.
Ahmadi left the hotel the day after the alleged rapes and moved to an address in Crewe without Home Office approval, where he was later arrested.
The jury was informed that Alshafe and Ahmadi entered the UK via small boat three months before the alleged rapes, while Al-Danasurt had entered the country a year earlier.
The trial is expected to last four weeks.
