Asylum seeker ‘called co-defendant animalfor spitting on’ rape victim | UK | News
The attack took place on Brighton beach (Image: GETTY)
The asylum seeker, accused of rape along with two other co-defendants on Brighton beach, told the court he called one of the other men an “animal” and spat at the woman before pushing her. 26-year-old Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi is on trial together with Egyptian nationals Ibrahim Alshafe (25) and Karin Al-Danasurt (20). Three men are accused of targeting the woman in a “cynical, predatory and callous” attack.
Ahmadi and Alshafe allegedly raped the woman multiple times on the beach in the East Sussex city in the early hours of October 4 last year, while Al-Danasurt filmed the incident. Giving evidence at Hove Crown Court on Friday, Ahmadi claimed what happened on the beach was consensual. He said the woman did not show any signs of anger until Al-Danasurt spat in her face.
Hove Crown Court (Image: Getty)
He told the court he then stopped having sex with her and pushed Al-Danasurt away.
Al-Danasurt had previously denied spitting on the woman.
Speaking through a Kurdish Sorani translator, Ahmadi said: “I saw that this was very disgusting. I was very angry.
“I pushed him, swore at him and told him he was an animal because normal people wouldn’t do what he did.”
He told jurors that it didn’t matter what your nationality was, that “it wasn’t right to act that way towards her” and that Al-Danasurt’s behavior caused her to leave the beach.
Later, he said, Alshafe and the woman were “hugging” and “kissing” on a bench when Al-Danasurt spat on her again.
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“As soon as I saw it, I pushed his hand away and pushed him back. I apologized to him even though I didn’t know much English.”
He said that while saying goodbye to the woman, the woman kissed him and said “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” to him repeatedly.
When asked what he was upset about, he replied: “Because of Karin’s behavior.”
The court heard the woman had become separated from her friends during a night out and prosecutors said the three defendants approached her as she was “staggering around alone in the street”.
The court also saw footage of the woman falling on the seashore with Ahmadi and Alshafe.
In his statement, Ahmedi said that the woman approached him, kissed and touched him, then kissed Alshafe and spoke in English.
He told the court he heard the woman say the word “sex” and took the two to the beach.
When asked what he was thinking during the walk, he said: “We went to the seaside for sex.”
All three defendants knew each other at the time of the incident and were living in a Home Office-approved hotel for asylum seekers near Horsham, West Sussex.
Ahmadi, of Crewe in Cheshire, and Alshafe, of Lower Beeding, denied raping the woman twice.
Al-Danasurt, also of Lower Beeding, is jointly charged with all four rape charges as a secondary party who “encouraged the rape by his actions at the scene, including filming”. He denied all four charges.
He also denies the fifth charge, that “private films were shared” without the complainant’s consent. The charge relates to Al-Danasurt allegedly sending recordings of the alleged rapes to Ahmadi’s phone via Snapchat shortly after the incident.
