Egyptian nationals Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, and Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, and Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, allegedly targeted the woman in a “cynical, predatory and callous” attack after she became separated from her friends while on a night out.
The prosecution alleges Alshafe and Ahmadi repeatedly raped the woman on the beach in the early hours of October 4, 2025, while Al-Danasurt filmed the incident, a trial at Hove Crown Court heard on Tuesday.
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters, opening the trial, told jurors they will be shown three clips of the alleged rape in which the alleged victim appears “motionless”.
“As the camera angle changes, Ahmadi covers his face with his hand, and he, you may think, may be trying to shift his head so he is not seen on camera,” she told jurors.
“Shortly after that, as she (the complainant) is motionless, Mr Alshafe lifts his head up to face the camera and poses for it, smiling and sticking his tongue out,” she added.
At the time of the alleged offences, all three defendants knew each other and were residents at the Cisswood House Hotel in Horsham, which was Home Office-approved accommodation for asylum seekers, jurors were told.
Alshafe and Ahmadi both entered the UK via small boat on June 19, 2025, three months before the alleged rapes, and Al-Danasurt entered the country on October 11, 2024, the court heard on Tuesday.
Ahmadi left the Cisswood House Hotel the day after the alleged rapes and moved to an address in Crewe, Cheshire, where he was arrested on October 12, the court heard.
The move had not been approved by the Home Office and Ahmadi had been marked as “absconding, self-departing” from the accommodation.
On October 13, Alshafe and Al-Danasurt were arrested after police were notified they had returned to the Cisswood House Hotel.
Ibrahim Alshafe, left, and Karin Al-Danasurt, right (Image: Sussex News and Pictures) (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)
DNA samples were taken from all three defendants, and DNA from both Alshafe and Ahmadi matched with samples taken on the complainant’s body during a forensic medical examination, jurors were told.
Forensic evidence related to Al-Danasurt was inconclusive, Ms Llewellyn-Waters further told jurors.
During his police interview, Al-Danasurt claimed he had not known what his co-defendants were planning to do as they took the woman, who was “visibly highly intoxicated”, to a hidden location on the beach.
“He invited police to look at the videos, which he said would show that he had done nothing wrong,” Ms Llewellyn-Waters told jurors.
“He said that he was really trying to help the woman.”
In his interview, Ahmadi told police that he and Alshafe had consensual sex with the complainant on the beach and that she in fact “initiated” the sexual encounter, the court was told.
Ahmadi and Alshafe have each denied two counts of raping the woman.
Al-Danasurt is jointly charged on all four counts of rape as a secondary party “encouraging the rape by his actions at the scene, including filming it”, and has pleaded not guilty to all four.
He denies a fifth count of “sharing intimate films” without the complainant’s consent.
The charge relates to an allegation that Al-Danasurt sent recordings of the alleged rapes to Ahmadi’s phone shortly after the incident.
The trial continues.
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