Three men jailed for Brighton beach rape
Three men who raped a woman on Brighton beach in an "entirely predatory, callous and contemptuous" attack have been jailed.
Asylum seekers Abdulla Ahmadi, Ibrahim Alshafe and Karin Al-Danasurt attacked the woman in the early hours of 4 October.
The victim, who jurors heard was "led into the darkness to be used as a sexual plaything", said she still heard their laughter when she closed her eyes, adding: "My skin crawls - no matter how hard I scrub it I still feel dirty."
Ahmadi, 26, from Iran, and Alshafe, 26, from Egypt, were each jailed for 21 years. Al-Danasurt, 21, also from Egypt, was convicted of rape as a secondary party for filming the attack and was jailed for 18 years and six months.
Sentencing the three men at Hove Crown Court, Her Honour Judge Christine Henson KC said each of them "participated in an entirely predatory and callous attack".
She added: "The impact on your victim was and continues to be devastating. It has had a life changing profound and irrevocable impact on her."
Each of the men, who were living in a Home Office hotel in Horsham at the time of the offence, will also spend a further six years on extended licence, and will serve two thirds of their sentence before they can be considered for parole.
Warning: Some readers may find the following details distressing.
The court previously heard from prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC, who said the three men were "on the lookout for women that night for sexual purposes" as they visited bars and nightclubs on Brighton seafront.
After leaving a club, the men crossed paths with the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, at a fast-food restaurant and they all went to the beach.
Jurors heard the woman was "staggering in the street" and was "incapacitated".
Alshafe and Ahmadi took her behind a beach hut, where they raped her while Al-Danasurt filmed the ordeal.
The trial heard the woman recalled being spat on, kicked and her throat being grabbed during the attack.
The court was told 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 in June 2025, while Alshafe and Al-Danasurt, who arrived in the UK in October 2024, were roommates at the hotel.
The evening before the attack the three got ready at the hotel before getting a bus into Brighton.
The jury was told that 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 told the court 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.
After the attack, the men returned to their hotel by bus and had a barbecue later that evening, the jury heard.
In a statement from the victim, read by Sussex Police DI Kirstie Neal, she thanked the officers involved in the case, who "restored my faith in the police".
She added: "I wasn't going to report what happened at first, but I'm so glad I did, and was able to get justice.
"I don't think I will ever get over what happened, but hopefully they are in prison, the night will be a little less long."
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".
Ministers have vowed to deport the men after they were sentenced.
Additional reporting by PA Media
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