Two asylum seekers who repeatedly raped a woman on Brighton beach and a third who filmed it have been jailed for the “entirely predatory and callous attack”.
Egyptian national Ibrahim Alshafe, 26, and Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, were eachgiven a 27-year sentence for raping the woman on October 4 last year, while Egyptian national Karin Al-Danasurt, 21, was given a sentence totalling 24 years and six months.
The sentencing at Hove Crown Court today (Wednesday 15 July) was told that all three would serve six years of their sentence on extended licence.
Jurors were told that the woman was targeted by the men as she was “staggering in the street” and was “incapacitated” in the early hours of October 4.
Alshafe and Ahmadi took her behind a beach hut, out of sight of security cameras, 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.
At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, the woman read a victim impact statement to the court, saying: “They destroyed my life that night, they took something from me nobody had the right to do so.
“They violated me in every way.”
Sentencing the men, Judge Christine Henson said: “Each of you participated in an entirely predatory and callous attack on a female separated from her friends after what had been a fun night out for her.
“You each treated her with contempt and you each played a role in degrading her in the most appalling way.”
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters described the men as “devoid of humanity” and their treatment of the woman was “entirely predatory, callous and contemptuous”.
She described the impact on the woman as “extreme”.
In her victim impact statement, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added: ““They took something from me that night I’m afraid I will never get back.
“To not take accountability for their actions (is) like sticking a knife in and twisting it again.”
She told the court when she closes her eyes she sees the man filming it and them all “laughing at me”.
“My skin crawls. No matter how hard I scrub it, I still feel dirty,” she added.
Alshafe and Ahmadi were found guilty of two counts of rape by jurors, while Al-Danasurt was found guilty of four counts of rape as a secondary party by encouraging and filming the attack.
The three defendants knew each other 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 on June 19 2025, while Alshafe and Al-Danasurt, who arrived in the UK on October 11 2024, were roommates at the hotel.
The three got ready at the hotel before getting a bus into Brighton on the night of October 3.
A Snapchat video shows them in front of a mirror at around 7.30pm at the hotel, with Ahmadi sorting a durag – a close-fitting cloth tied around the top of the head – on Al-Danasurt, who gestures to the camera and smiles, while being filmed by Alshafe.
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 suggested 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, around the time the woman was waiting to be medically examined.
During the trial, all three men gave evidence through translators to deny the crimes.
Ms Llewellyn-Waters said their accounts provided “clear and chilling insight into a wholly warped mindset” and a “total lack of remorse”.
Alshafe and Ahmadi claimed the encounter was consensual and that the woman had approached them on the seafront, kissed and touched them both, said something about sex and took them both to the beach.
The court saw footage of the woman falling down while walking with Ahmadi and Alshafe on the seafront.
Al-Danasurt claimed to jurors that he had tried to stop the attack by filming it, which prosecutor Ms Llewellyn-Waters said was a “pack of lies”.
The videos shown to jurors showed Alshafe smiling and sticking his tongue out during the attack, as well as slapping the woman in the face.
Ministers have vowed to deport the men after they were sentenced.
Today, the prosecution said that 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”.
I think we seriously need to think about bringing back the death penalty!
Especially with today’s technology.
Nobody voted for it to be rescinded! Something else foisted on us by a labour government!
I think you are factually mistaken. There was a moratorium on capital punishment introduced in 1965, followed by a 1969 Act of Parliament voted on and passed by both houses. The vote to join the EEC and the passing of the Human Rights Act of 1998, again by both houses, effectively ended it. In 2004 all reasons for capital punishment were agreed and enshrined by international protocols. This included treason and the burning of the Kings shipyards. All of which is rather academic as rape was not a capital crime.
I hope these vile creatures are deported at the end of their sentences, if they survive that long.
Please tell me that Taxpayer isn’t paying for them to be in Prison all those Years.
And they can go back to where the come from as they Asylum Seekers -it costs about £80,,000 a year per inmate x 3 and those lengths.
Andy Burnham needs to start the proceedings of sending them Home.
If you send them home then they will be free as they haven’t been convicted there! Removal of liberty for the protection of Society is the best policy, alongside deportation on completion of their sentences with no right of appeal.
Exactly. I can’t believe you even have to explain this.
Total Estimated Cost Over TimeActual Jail Time Costs: Because the men are mandated by the court to serve a minimum of two-thirds of their sentence behind bars before parole eligibility, they will spend a combined total of 40 years and 4 months in physical custody. At current rates, this will cost taxpayers £2,240,920.Maximum Sentence Costs: If they are denied parole and serve out the absolute maximum length of their combined 60.5-year custodial sentences, the total bill will reach £3,361,380.Probation Costs: During their remaining 6-year extended licence periods, supervision via the Probation Service will add an average of £4,500 per year per man, totaling £81,000 for all three across their full terms.
And something like £5 billion across the UK every year, it’s very expensive to put people in prison. Not that cost should be a barrier to justice, in my opinion.
great to see tough sentences that are a deterrent for other potential similar offenders.
they have a terrible attitude to european women and they need severe punishment such as this.
dont forget one of them is a murderer
Give them to the mob.