Three men have been convicted of repeatedly raping a woman on Brighton beach in a "cynical, predatory and callous" attack. Asylum seekers Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, and Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, were found guilty at Hove Crown Court of raping a woman on Brighton beach after she became separated from her friends during a night out.
The court was told the woman was targeted by the men as she was "staggering in the street" and was "incapacitated" in the early hours of October 4 last year. The victim later informed police that she could hear laughter while the assault was taking place. Two of the men led her behind a beach hut in the East Sussex city where they raped her, while the third arrived shortly afterwards and recorded it on film.
Verdicts Delivered After Five-Week Trial
Egyptian national Alshafe, 25, and Iranian national Ahmadi, 26, were both convicted of two counts of rape by the jury on Thursday. Egyptian national Al-Danasurt, 20, was likewise found guilty of all four counts of rape as a secondary party by encouraging and filming the ordeal. The jury delivered their verdicts in the five-week trial following more than 12 hours of deliberation, reports the Mirror.
Footage presented to jurors shows Alshafe smiling and sticking his tongue out during the attack, as well as slapping the woman in the face. Both he and Ahmadi maintained throughout the trial that the encounter was consensual, claiming she had approached them along the seafront, kissed and touched them both, said something about sex and led them both to the beach. Al-Danasurt, who told jurors he attempted to prevent the attack by recording it, also denied spitting in the woman's mouth and calling her a "dirty b*tch".
Prosecution Details the Attack
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC told jurors: "Frankly, to these defendants, the complainant was meat. She was repeatedly abused for their sexual gratification and entertainment. They wanted sex and that could be achieved by being with someone who was in no state to resist them."
She stated the woman told police she remembered being spat on, kicked, and having her throat grabbed during the assault, as well as hearing men laughing. During her testimony, the woman told the court: "It wasn't consensual, it was not consensual, they are evil and they have ruined my life."
While being cross-examined from behind a screen, she also broke down, saying: "It's the filmer's face I see every time I close my eyes, laughing at me." In a video interview with police shown to jurors, recorded on 13 October 2025, the victim said she had been at a bar with friends until approximately 3am before heading to a nightclub near the beach.
She said she regained consciousness lying on the beach and thought she was going to be killed. In the recording, she said: "I closed my eyes because I thought 'oh my God, they're actually going to kill me', I can hear all these voices and I can't stop them."
Evidence and Arrests
The court also heard that minutes after leaving the men, the woman spoke to her friends and was described as "wailing and hysterical saying she has been raped". DNA samples were collected from all three defendants, with results showing that DNA from both Alshafe and Ahmadi matched samples taken from the complainant's body during a forensic medical examination, while Al-Danasurt's results were inconclusive.
At the time of the attack, all three defendants were acquainted and residing in Home Office-approved hotel accommodation for asylum seekers near Horsham, West Sussex. The trio prepared themselves at the hotel before boarding a bus into Brighton on the evening of 3rd October. A Snapchat video captured them at approximately 7.30pm at the hotel in front of a mirror, with Ahmadi adjusting a durag on Al-Danasurt, who gestures towards the camera, while Alshafe films the scene, smiling.
Earlier that evening, the group visited a bar and nightclub on the beach, where Alshafe was conversing with a woman via Google Translate about his aspirations to marry, have children, and obtain citizenship in the UK. She said she would like to be friends with him but did not believe he just wanted that "because you're touching my breasts", to which he replied: "I am forced by your beauty".
The prosecution argued that what truly unfolded in the early hours of 4th October was that Alshafe had been knocked back by several women and was "on the prowl" alongside his co-defendants. "That night, Mr Alshafe, you were nothing more than a nasty little predator," Ms Llewellyn-Waters said to him in court. Following the attack, the men travelled back to their hotel by bus before gathering for a barbecue that evening, at roughly the same time the woman was awaiting a medical examination. A video of Al-Danasurt wearing filtered sunglasses in a selfie with a lit barbecue was also shown in court.
Ahmadi departed the hotel the day after the rape and relocated to an address in Crewe, Cheshire, where he was subsequently arrested on October 12, the court was told. The move had not been sanctioned by the Home Office, and Ahmadi had been flagged as "absconding, self-departing" from the accommodation. On October 13, Alshafe and Al-Danasurt, both of Lower Beeding, near Horsham, were apprehended by officers at their hotel. An additional charge of "sharing intimate films" without the complainant's consent, which Al-Danasurt had faced, was dropped on Thursday after it was confirmed the offence can only be heard in a magistrates' court.
