I filmed assault to help police, says rape accused

A man accused of filming an alleged rape on Brighton beach claimed he did so to "gather evidence for police", a court was told.

The woman had been on a night out but became separated from her friends.

Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, an Iranian national living in Crewe, Cheshire, and 25-year-old Ibrahim Alshafe, an Egyptian living in Horsham, West Sussex, each deny two counts of raping the woman in the early hours of 4 October last year.

Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, an Egyptian living in Horsham, has denied four counts of raping the woman on 4 October 2025 and to sharing intimate films of her.

Al-Danasurt is also accused of sending the recordings to Ahmadi's phone.

Jurors at Hove Crown Court heard during a police interview, Al-Danasurt said he had no role in arranging or encouraging the rape and recorded the alleged attack as "potential evidence".

"The video is there, you have seen it, they were raping her in the video," he said.

"I was in shock, so I started recording what I was seeing."

When asked why he changed position, laughed and zoomed in while filming, he replied: "I didn't mean anything at all.

"I do not remember, I just wanted to capture them all together."

The jury previously heard the woman had encountered Alshafe and Ahmadi in Revolution bar and in Horizon prior to the alleged attack.

The woman previously told jurors that she was spat on, grabbed and held down during the alleged attacks.

Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters had previously told the court the woman was intoxicated and "to all intents and purposes, incapacitated" at the time.

Jurors were told that at the time of the offences, all three men knew each other and lived at the same hotel near Horsham, which was Home Office-approved accommodation for asylum seekers.

The trial continues.

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