Three asylum seekers have been charged with the gang rape of an unconscious woman on a beach in Brighton. One of the men filmed the assault and explained in court that “rape is sex”.

Egyptian Karin Al-Danasurt (25) is charged with having filmed two companions while they allegedly raped an unconscious, intoxicated woman (33) behind a beach hut in Brighton during the night of 4 October last year.

When he was asked by prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters whether he understood that what he had witnessed was a rape, he replied through an interpreter:

– What I saw was sex. Rape is sex for me.

The prosecutor confronted him:

– No, there are many different types of sex. What you witnessed was a rape.

This is reported by Daily Mail.

Al-Danasurt explained in court that the woman was so intoxicated that she had to be held up by one of the co-defendants. He described that she opened and closed her eyes, did not speak, and was unable to say anything.

– The situation was not pleasant, it was bad. She was unable to say anything. They raped her, he said, according to Daily Mail.

Claims he filmed to protect himself

Despite admitting to having filmed the assault, Al-Danasurt denies criminal guilt. He claims that he filmed in order to gather evidence and protect himself.

The prosecutor was not impressed by the explanation:

– You did absolutely nothing. You went off and had a barbecue with them the following day.

The court was shown video clips showing the three men as they prepare for a night out, and later as they barbecue in the garden at the asylum hotel the day after the alleged rape. One of them poses with a sunglasses filter in front of the camera.

All arrived by small boat

All three defendants were living at the same asylum hotel, approved by the British Home Office. Al-Danasurt’s asylum application had already been rejected at the time of the alleged rape.

Co-defendant Ibrahim Alshafe, also Egyptian, and the Iranian-Kurdish Abdulla Amih Ahmadi arrived in the United Kingdom by small boat across the English Channel in June 2025. Al-Danasurt arrived in the same manner in October 2024.

The day after the incident, Ahmadi left the asylum hotel in what the court describes as an “unauthorised move”, that is, he absconded from the reception centre. He was arrested on 12 October in Crewe.

Alshafe and Ahmadi are charged with two counts of rape each. Al-Danasurt is charged with complicity in all four counts of rape, as well as with sharing intimate images without consent.

All three deny criminal guilt. The trial is ongoing at Lewes Crown Court in Hove.