Three asylum seekers have been imprisoned following the repeated rape of a woman on Brighton beach, with a third man jailed for recording the assault, described as an "entirely predatory and callous attack".
Sentences handed down at Hove Crown Court
Egyptian nationals Ibrahim Alshafe, 26, and Karin Al-Danasurt, 21, along with Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, were sentenced at Hove Crown Court on Wednesday. Alshafe and Ahmadi each received 21-year prison terms for raping the woman on 4 October last year, while Al-Danasurt was handed an 18-year and six-month sentence. The court heard that all three men will serve an additional six years on extended licence following their release.
Details of the attack
The jury was told the victim was targeted by the men while she was "staggering in the street" and "incapacitated" during the early hours of 4 October. Alshafe and Ahmadi led her behind a beach hut in the coastal city where they carried out the rape while Al-Danasurt filmed the attack. During the trial, the court heard the woman remembered being spat upon, kicked and having her throat grabbed throughout the ordeal.
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC described the men as "devoid of humanity" and their treatment of the woman was "entirely predatory, callous and contemptuous". She described the impact on the woman as "extreme".
Victim impact statement
At Wednesday's sentencing hearing, the woman read a victim impact statement to the court, saying: "They destroyed my life that night, they took something from me nobody had the right to do so. They violated me in every way." Sentencing the men, Judge Christine Henson KC said: "Each of you participated in an entirely predatory and callous attack on a female separated from her friends after what had been a fun night out for her. You each treated her with contempt and you each played a role in degrading her in the most appalling way."
In her victim impact statement, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added: "They took something from me that night I'm afraid I will never get back. To not take accountability for their actions (is) like sticking a knife in and twisting it again." She told the court when she closes her eyes she sees the man filming it and them all "laughing at me". "My skin crawls. No matter how hard I scrub it, I still feel dirty," she added.
Background of the defendants
Alshafe and Ahmadi were found guilty of two counts of rape by jurors, while Al-Danasurt was found guilty of four counts of rape as a secondary party by encouraging and filming the attack. The three defendants knew each other and were living at Home Office-approved hotel accommodation for asylum seekers in Lower Beeding, near Horsham, West Sussex. Ahmadi and Alshafe met on a small boat from France arriving in the UK on June 19 2025, while Alshafe and Al-Danasurt, who arrived in the UK on October 11 2024, were roommates at the hotel. The three got ready at the hotel before getting a bus into Brighton on the night of October 3.
A Snapchat video shows them in front of a mirror at around 7.30pm at the hotel, with Ahmadi sorting a durag on Al-Danasurt, who gestures to the camera and smiles, while being filmed by Alshafe. During the night out, the friends went to a bar and nightclub on the beach where Alshafe chatted to a woman using Google Translate about his hopes to marry a woman and have children and get citizenship in the UK. The prosecution suggested he had been a "nasty little predator" that night who had been rejected by several women and was "on the prowl" with the co-defendants.
Aftermath and legal proceedings
After the attack, the men returned to their hotel by bus and had a barbecue later that evening, around the time the woman was waiting to be medically examined. During the trial, all three men gave evidence through translators to deny the crimes. Ms Llewellyn-Waters said their accounts provided "clear and chilling insight into a wholly warped mindset" and a "total lack of remorse". Alshafe and Ahmadi claimed the encounter was consensual and that the woman had approached them on the seafront, kissed and touched them both, said something about sex and took them both to the beach. The court saw footage of the woman falling down while walking with Ahmadi and Alshafe on the seafront.
Al-Danasurt claimed to jurors that he had tried to stop the attack by filming it, which prosecutor Ms Llewellyn-Waters said was a "pack of lies". The videos shown to jurors showed Alshafe smiling and sticking his tongue out during the attack, as well as slapping the woman in the face. Ministers have vowed to deport the men after they were sentenced. On Wednesday the prosecution said the sentencing court should make its decision on the risk posed by the defendants "without regards to possibility that one day a defendant may be deported".
