Two Egyptian nationals and an Iranian national are on trial accused of raping a woman on Brighton beach after a night out while a third man allegedly filmed the assault. Prosecutors told Hove Crown Court that Egyptian nationals Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, and Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, and Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, targeted the woman after she became separated from friends.
The court heard the woman later told police she had been spat on, kicked and had her throat grabbed by “laughing” men during the incident in the early hours of 4 October last year. At the time, all three defendants were staying at Cisswood House Hotel in Horsham, West Sussex, which was being used as Home Office-approved accommodation for asylum seekers.
Jurors were told that Alshafe and Ahmadi had both entered the UK by small boat on 19 June 2025, around three months before the alleged attack, while Al-Danasurt arrived in the country on 11 October 2024. On the night in question, prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters said the complainant was intoxicated and “to all intents and purposes, incapacitated”.
“Frankly, to these defendants, the complainant was meat,” she told the jury, alleging the woman was “repeatedly abused for their sexual gratification and entertainment”. She said the men “wanted sex and that could be achieved by being with someone who was in no state to resist them”.
The prosecution said the woman was seen “staggering in the street” alone when she was “targeted” by the three defendants. Ms Llewellyn-Waters described the alleged approach as “cynical, predatory and callous”, adding that Al-Danasurt himself acknowledged in a police interview that she was unable to stand without support.
Alshafe and Ahmadi are accused of taking the woman to a spot behind a beach shack and raping her “repeatedly”. Al-Danasurt is alleged to have followed them; although the complainant does not know whether he raped her, the prosecution say he was “fully aware of what was happening” and served to encourage the rapes by filming the incident. Jurors have been told they will be shown the footage during the trial.
Ahmadi, from Crewe in Cheshire, and Alshafe, of Horsham, each deny two counts of raping the woman. Al-Danasurt, also from Horsham, is jointly charged on all four rape counts as a secondary party, accused of encouraging the offences through his actions at the scene, including filming. He has pleaded not guilty to all four counts and also denies a fifth charge of sharing intimate films without the complainant’s consent.
The trial continues.