An asylum seeker, whose application was denied, is on trial for his alleged involvement in the gang rape of a woman who was unconscious and intoxicated. During court proceedings, he made the inflammatory statement that “rape is sex” while being questioned about his grasp of the concept of consent.

Karin Al-Danasurt, originally from Egypt, stands accused of recording his two friends assaulting the woman on Brighton Beach. This incident occurred after his bid for asylum had been turned down. The victim, whose identity is being protected, was reportedly so inebriated that she needed support from one of Al-Danasurt’s co-defendants as they led her behind a beach hut in the early hours of October 4 last year.

In the courtroom at Lewes Crown Court in Hove, prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters depicted the three men’s actions as dehumanizing, asserting that they treated the woman as mere entertainment.

At 25 years old, Al-Danasurt explained to the jury that he recorded the incident for what he claims was self-protection. He has denied charges of rape and the distribution of explicit videos.

His co-accused, Ibrahim Alshafe, also Egyptian, and Abdulla Amih Ahmadi, an Iranian Kurd, both maintain their innocence in the face of the rape allegations.

His co-defendants Ibrahim Alshafe, another Egyptian, and Iranian Kurd Abdulla Amih Ahmadi both deny rape.

Ms Llewellyn-Waters for the Crown asked him: ‘As far as you were concerned, you were witnessing a rape?’

‘I see sex in front of me,’ he told the court.

Karin Al-Danasurt, an Egyptian asylum seeker, said he saw ‘sex in front of me’ as he filmed the alleged rape of a woman on Brighton beach

His co-accused Ibrahim Alshafe has denied raping the woman in the early hours of October 4 last year

‘No, there’s lots of different types of sex, you were witnessing a rape,’ Ms Llewellyn-Waters said.

Mr Al-Danasurt replied: ‘That’s what I saw. Rape to me is sex.’

He was further challenged on whether he saw ‘any distinction’ between someone who is or is not able to agree to sex, and whether it ‘mattered’. 

Speaking through an interpreter, he said he did not understand the question.

Pressed, the Egyptian said: ‘I said what I saw. She was closing her eyes, opening her eyes. She wasn’t speaking.

‘The situation wasn’t pleasant, it was bad. She wasn’t able to say anything. They were raping her, but I did not hear anything. I didn’t hear what they told her.’

Mr Al-Danasurt told police he started filming his friends, who all lived in the same asylum hotel, to gather evidence.

Asked why he was filming, he said: ‘It was to stop them and to protect myself. I did whatever I could do to stop them and to speak to them.’

But Ms Llwelly-Waters told him: ‘You did precisely nothing. You went off and had a barbecue with them the next day.’

Mr Al-Danasurt denies rape and sharing intimate videos.

The court heard he went to the Horizon nightclub just before 0330 where he met the other two men and stayed till closing time at 5am.  

The men are said to have filmed themselves getting ready for a night out before catching a bus into Brighton where they met the woman

After getting a bus back to their hotel after the alleged rape, the migrants are said to have filmed themselves having a barbecue in the hotel grounds

The three defendants are said to have partied at their asylum hotel after the attack – with one posing with a sunglasses filter on his face

He told the jury through an interpreter he had tried to pull them off the woman and only filmed the incident to gather evidence for police. He also denied spitting on the woman.

The jury was told more than 15 minutes passed after the end of the third clip shot by Mr Al-Danasurt and one of the men being seen on CCTV leaving the beach.

Tests indicated DNA from three other people was present, with semen belonging to Mr Alshafe and Mr Ahmadi being identified. Tests on a third sample were inconclusive.

Mr Al-Danasurt told the jury his asylum claim had been rejected and he was helping Mr Alshafe after his claim had also been rejected. The three men had a barbecue at their asylum hotel hours later.

The men filmed themselves getting ready for a night out before catching a bus into Brighton; video of them in a room at the asylum hotel where they were all living were shown to the jury.

Three clips filmed by Egyptian Karin Al-Danasurt of his roommate and another small boat migrant having sex with the woman have also been shown to the jury.

The jury heard small boat migrant Ibrahim Alshafe groped another woman at the Horizon club and told her he was looking for a British bride.

He said he did not want to go back to his country as he touched the young woman in a Brighton nightclub.

Mr Alshafe told her he travelled to the UK to marry a British woman and get citizenship.

The jury have been told Iranian Kurd Abdulla Amih Ahmadi left the Home Office run hotel in Sussex the day after the barbecue in an ‘unapproved move’ described as ‘absconding’. He was arrested on October 12 in Crewe.

The woman has described her attackers as evil men who had ruined her life.

The court heard Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, arrived on a small boat on June 19, 2025 with Abdulla Amih Ahmadi. Both were housed at the hotel from June 21, 2025.

Al-Danasurt entered the country on October 11, 2024, it was said. 

Ahmadi, from Crewe in Cheshire, and Alshafe, who lives in Horsham, have each denied two counts of raping the woman.

Al-Danasurt, also from Horsham, is jointly charged on all four counts of rape as a secondary party encouraging the rape, and has been charged with sharing intimate images without consent. They have denied all charges.

The trial at Lewes Crown Court in Hove continues.