A jury has been shown a mapped timeline of three asylum seekers movements on a night out in Brighton before they allegedly gang-raped a lone, drunk woman on the beach. The Crown Prosecution Service map combines CCTV and other footage from the seafront and two nightclubs to trace the group’s route from the city centre to a beach shack where the attack is said to have taken place.
Prosecutors say Egyptian nationals Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, and Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, and Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, spent the night drinking and dancing in Revolution and Horizon nightclubs on the seafront. In CCTV played to Hove Crown Court, two of the men appear to interact with the complainant’s friend in the foyer of Revolution, with Ahmadi allegedly grabbing her around the waist before she pushes his arm away and gestures at him.
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Further clips from inside Horizon show the three men dancing and talking with different women. One sequence appears to show Alshafe putting his arms around an unknown blonde woman and groping her, while another appears to show Al‑Danasurt with his arms around a brunette woman, stroking her bottom. Later, cameras along the seafront capture the complainant being led down a ramp towards the beach by the defendants.
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn‑Waters told the jury the woman, in her 30s, had been on a night out and described herself as “paralytic drunk”. She said the complainant was “visibly intoxicated” and staggering along the seafront when the men allegedly targeted her in a “cynical, predatory and callous” manner, not to help her but to exploit her vulnerability.
The prosecution case is that the three led her to a secluded spot near a beach shack, where Alshafe and Ahmadi repeatedly raped her while Al‑Danasurt filmed the assault and encouraged them. All three are charged with rape; Al‑Danasurt faces an additional charge of sharing an intimate film without consent. They deny all charges.
The alleged incident took place at around 6am on Saturday 4 October last year. The court heard all three defendants had arrived in the UK by small boat, with Alshafe and Ahmadi entering in June 2025 and Al‑Danasurt arriving in October 2024. At the time of the alleged offences they were living in a Home Office‑approved hotel used to accommodate people seeking, or appealing, asylum and immigration decisions.
In a video-recorded police interview, the complainant said she has no memory of how she came to be on the beach after leaving Horizon nightclub. She recalled drifting in and out of consciousness and described a “weird” feeling unlike anything she had experienced before when drunk. She said she remembered someone rubbing a finger in her mouth, a bright light like a phone camera flash, and hearing a man with a foreign accent repeatedly calling her a “dirty” insult as she was abused.
The jury of seven women and five men will continue to hear evidence, including the mapped sequence of CCTV clips charting the movements of the defendants and complainant throughout the night. The trial continues.