Asylum seekers jailed for 21 years for raping woman on Brighton beach
Asylum seekers Ibrahim Alshafe, 26, and Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, were sentenced to 21 years in prison each at Hove Crown Court for raping a woman on Brighton beach on October 4, 2025.
21-year-old Karin Al-Danasurt, who filmed the attack, was sentenced to 18 years and 6 months in prison.
At sentencing on Wednesday, all three will serve a further six years on extended licence.
In a previous hearing at the same court, it was heard that the woman was targeted by men after she separated from her friends during a night out.
The court heard the woman was “staggering around in the street” and was “clumsy”.
Egyptian national Alshafe and Iranian national Ahmadi took her behind a hut on the beach and raped her.
Al-Danasurt, an Egyptian national, went to the scene a few minutes later and filmed the incident.
Alshafe and Ahmadi were found guilty of two counts of rape, while Al-Danasurt was found guilty of four counts of rape as a secondary party.
Jurors returned their verdict during the five-week trial after deliberating for more than 12 hours.
Footage shown during the hearing showed Alshafe smiling during the attack.
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC told jurors the woman remembered being spat on, kicked, choked and men laughing during the attack.
At the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, the woman read a victim impact statement to the court and said: “They ruined my life that night, they took something from me, no one had the right to do that.
“They violated me in every way.”
Sentencing the men, Judge Christine Henson KC said: “Each of you took part in a completely predatory and callous attack on a woman who had left her friends after a night of fun for herself.
“Each of you treated him with contempt, and each of you played a part in his most terrible humiliation.”
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC described the men as “lacking humanity” and their treatment of the woman as “utterly predatory, callous and degrading”.
He described the impact on women as “extreme”.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added in a victim impact statement: “They took something from me that night, I’m afraid I’ll never get it back.
“Not taking responsibility for your actions is like sticking a knife in and twisting it again.”
He told the court that when he closed his eyes he saw the man who shot the video and they were all “laughing at me”.
“My skin tingles. No matter how hard I scrub, I still feel dirty,” she added.
The three defendants knew each other and lived in a Home Office-approved hotel for asylum seekers in Lower Beeding, near Horsham, West Sussex.
Ahmadi and Alshafe met on a small boat arriving in the UK from France on 19 June 2025, while Alshafe and Al-Danasurt, who arrived in the UK on 11 October 2024, were roommates at the hotel.
While Alshafe and Ahmadi claimed during the trial that the encounter was consensual, Al-Danasurt claimed in court that he tried to stop the attack by filming it.
Giving evidence at the hearing, the woman told the court: “There was no consent, there was no consent. They are evil and they ruined my life.”
The woman, who was cross-examined from behind a screen in court, cried as she said: “Every time I close my eyes, I see the face of the filmmaker smiling at me.”
Ministers have vowed to deport these men once they are convicted.
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