Beach rape accused was 'on the prowl', court hears

A man accused of raping a woman on Brighton beach has denied being a "nasty little predator" who was on "the prowl" at the end of a night out.

Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, is on trial alongside Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, and Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, for allegedly targeting the woman in a "cynical... and callous" attack in the early hours of 4 October.

Alshafe and Ahmadi are accused of repeatedly raping the woman, while Al-Danasurt filmed the incident.

All three deny the charges against them.

Giving evidence at Hove Crown Court on Thursday, Egyptian national Alshafe rejected the prosecution's claim he found the woman's vulnerability "funny".

He also denied that he "used and abused her" for his own sexual gratification.

"You had been knocked back by several women that night," said prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC.

"You were on the prowl.

"The three of you settled on a woman that was entirely vulnerable," she continued.

Llewellyn-Waters called Alshafe's suggestion the woman was not very drunk "ridiculous".

"You took her into the darkness and did what you wanted to her," she added.

"You were nothing more than a nasty little predator."

In his defence, Alshafe said they had gone to the beach to have sex.

"She was in agreement.... she was enjoying it," he said.

The court previously saw footage of three recordings taken by Al-Danasurt, also from Egypt, during the alleged attack, including one of Alshafe slapping the woman in the face.

He repeated his defence that he was "playing with her".

The prosecutor said that the woman spoke to her friends minutes after leaving the three men.

She was described as "wailing and hysterical saying she has been raped", Llewellyn-Waters said.

Jurors have been told the woman had become separated from her friends on a night out.

Prosecutors said the three defendants approached her when she was "staggering in the street" alone.

All three men were asylum seekers living at a hotel near Horsham at the time of the incident.

Alshafe and Iranian national Ahmadi deny two counts of rape.

Al-Danasurt is jointly charged on all four rape counts as a secondary party "encouraging the rape by his actions at the scene, including filming it".

He has pleaded not guilty.

Al-Danasurt denies a fifth count of sharing intimate films without the complainant's consent.

It is alleged he sent recordings of the alleged rapes to Ahmadi's phone by Snapchat shortly after the incident.

The trial continues.

• If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, information and support can be found at the BBC's Action Line

Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.