An asylum seeker accused of rape on Brighton beach with two co-defendants has told a court that he called one of the other men an “animal” and pushed him away after he spat on the woman.
Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, is on trial with Egyptian national co-defendants Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, and Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, for allegedly targeting the woman in a “cynical, predatory and callous” attack.
Ahmadi and Alshafe are accused of repeatedly raping the woman on the beach of 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 said what took place on the beach was consensual and the woman did not show any anger until Al-Danasurt spat in her face.
He said he stopped having sex with the woman and pushed him.
Al-Danasurt has previously denied in court spitting on the woman.
Speaking through a Kurdish Sorani interpreter, Ahmadi said: “I saw that was very disgusting. I was very angry.
“I pushed him, and I swear to him and told him he was an animal, because what he did, normal people are not doing that.”
He told jurors it does not matter what your nationality is “it is not right to act like that against her”, and Al-Danasurt’s behaviour made him leave the beach.
After the beach, he said Alshafe and the woman were sitting on a bench “cuddling” and “kissing” when Al-Danasurt repeated spitting on her again.
“As soon I saw that I pushed his hand and I pushed back. Even I don’t know a lot of English I said sorry to her.”
He said when he said goodbye to the woman she kissed him and he repeatedly told her “sorry, sorry”.
Asked what he was sorry for, he replied: “Because of Karin’s behaviour.”
Jurors have been told the woman had become separated from her friends on a night out, and prosecutors said the three defendants approached her when she was “staggering in the street” alone.
The court has seen footage of the woman falling down while with Ahmadi and Alshafe on the seafront.
In his evidence, Ahmadi said the woman approached him and kissed and touched him, and then also kissed Alshafe and then spoke in English.
He told the court he heard her say the word “sex” and she took the two of them down to the beach.
Asked what he was thinking on their walk over, he said: “We went to the seaside for sex.”
At the time of the incident, all three defendants knew each other and were living at Home Office-approved hotel accommodation for asylum seekers near Horsham, West Sussex.
The court heard Ahmadi and Alshafe met each other on a small boat from France to the UK, while Alshafe and Al-Danasurt were roommates at the hotel.
Ahmadi told jurors he left Iran because he was working for a Kurdish opposition party and was discovered by security police who went to look for him at his home and asked his mother where he was.
“If I hadn’t left, I would have been arrested and been killed,” he said.
Ahmadi, of Crewe in Cheshire, and Alshafe, of Lower Beeding, have each denied two counts of raping the woman.
Al-Danasurt, also of Lower Beeding, is jointly charged on all four rape counts as a secondary party “encouraging the rape by his actions at the scene, including filming it”, and has pleaded not guilty to all four charges.
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 via Snapchat shortly after the incident.
The trial continues.
