It started with a night out that should have ended with friends and safety. Instead, a woman in her thirties found herself alone, heavily intoxicated, on Brighton seafront in the early hours of 4 October 2025. Three men saw their chance. They led her behind a beach hut and subjected her to repeated rape while one of them filmed it. Yesterday at Hove Crown Court those men received long prison terms. The case should force a reckoning with how easily such predators slipped through our borders.
Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, from Iran, and Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, from Egypt, were each jailed for 21 years for rape. Karin Al-Danasurt, 21, also Egyptian, received 18 years and six months for his role as a secondary party after filming the assault. All three must serve at least two thirds of their sentence before they can apply for parole. They will then spend another six years on extended licence. Government ministers have confirmed the men will be deported once their time is served.
Her Honour Judge Christine Henson KC did not mince her words.
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.The judge called the assault entirely predatory, callous and contemptuous. The men had been seen earlier that night approaching and groping other women. They denied everything at trial, insisting the encounter was consensual. The jury disagreed.
The victim’s personal statement, read in court, makes for harrowing reading. She said the men destroyed her life that night. They took something from her nobody had the right to take. Her skin crawls no matter how hard she scrubs it. She still feels dirty.
If I could do one thing, I would go back to that night and never go out. All I see when I close my eyes is the man who was filming it. All I can hear is the seagulls and the waves and the laughter in my head. Sometimes it feels like the noises will never stop.She doubts she will ever visit the beach again or feel able to have a partner. Those words should echo beyond the courtroom.
All three were asylum seekers who had crossed the Channel in small boats. At the time of the attack they were living in Home Office-approved hotel accommodation near Horsham in West Sussex. That detail lands heavily. A system designed to process claims and protect the vulnerable instead housed men who went on to commit one of the most degrading crimes imaginable against a British woman. One of the offenders had even disclosed a prior murder conviction from Egypt in 2022 on his asylum application, yet still remained at large in the community.
The predatory pattern was clear long before they reached that beach hut. They had been circling other women earlier in the night. When they found one who was incapacitated and alone, they struck. The filming was not an afterthought. It added another layer of violation. The survivor now lives with constant flashbacks, unable to silence the sounds of gulls, waves and laughter. Her testimony reveals trauma that will not fade with time served.
