Asylum seeker who claimed he filmed alleged rape so he might present proof to police ‘is telling pack of lies’, court docket hears
A failed asylum seeker who claimed he filmed an alleged rape so he could gather evidence for police is ‘telling a pack of lies’, a court has heard.
Karin Al–Danasurt, 20, appeared at Hove Crown Court after he was accused of targeting an unconscious drunk woman in a ‘cynical, predatory and callous’ attack.
The Egyptian national stood trial with co–defendants Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, also from Egypt, and Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, an Iranian national, who both allegedly raped the victim repeatedly at Brighton Beach on October 4.
Al–Danasurt denied claims he spat on the woman, called her a ‘dirty b****’ and laughed or encouraged Alshafe and Ahmadi during the incident.
Jurors were told the woman had been separated from her friends while on a girls’ night out and prosecutors said the three defendants approached her when she was ‘staggering in the street’ alone.
Footage taken of the incident showed the woman falling down twice, the court heard.
Al–Danasurt told the court that by capturing the three videos during the alleged attack he was attempting to get his co–defendants to stop – and also to ‘defend himself’ in order to show someone what happened.
Before filming the incident, Al–Danasurt said he tried to ‘grab them away’ but nobody responded to him, the court heard.
But in cross–examination by prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn–Waters KC, she questioned his tone in the videos and asked him ‘what was so funny’ – and what he was doing in the three and a half minutes before he started filming.
The prosecutor suggested Al–Danasurt was telling a ‘pack of lies’ and looking after himself.
Karin Al–Danasurt (pictured), 20, appeared at Hove Crown Court after he was accused of targeting an unconscious drunk woman in a ‘cynical, predatory and callous’ attack
His co–accused Ibrahim Alshafe has denied raping the woman in the early hours of October 4 last year
She added: ‘I suggest what you’ve done in your evidence is put on a performance with a string of lies to hide your true involvement.’
The defendant replied: ‘What I said is totally the truth, I’m not lying, I’m telling the truth.
‘If I wanted to lie, I would have said I didn’t go to Brighton from the beginning.’
The court had heard that Al–Danasurt, while he was filming, said ‘God will expose you’ to the two men, which he said were ‘powerful’ words.
However, Ms Llewellyn–Waters said an interpreter had explained the phrase can be used in a dismissive way.
‘You found it entertaining, didn’t you?’ she asked.
Al–Danasurt replied: ‘No, there was no entertainment at all.’
The Egyptian migrant was also accused of slapping the complainant – an allegation he denies.
The court heard that in Ahmadi’s statement to police, he said Al–Danasurt began slapping the woman and spat in her mouth after the incident.
Responding in court today, Al–Danasurt said: ‘No, that has never happened.
‘He said that before because I gave the video to the police and once he knew I gave the video to the police, of course, he will accuse me and he will say everything against me.’
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
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
Giving evidence, the second defendant, Alshafe, told the court the group had gone to Brighton on October 3 last year and he had ended up dancing and talking to women in Horizon nightclub.
After leaving the club he said he and Ahmadi were approached by the complainant – a woman they hadn’t seen before.
He told the court: ‘A female approached us. She said: “How’re you” I didn’t know how to answer so said: “Thank you”.’
Alshafe claimed the woman then ‘put her hand on’ the genitals of co-defendant, Ahmadi, before doing the same to him.
Brian Shaw, defending, asked him: ‘Did she appear drunk to you.’
Alshafe replied: ‘No. I wouldn’t say she was drunk. She had been drinking but not drunk.’
Mr Shaw asked: ‘She began to touch your hair, the top of your head and did she also kiss you?’
Alshafe replied: ‘Yes.
He added: ‘From what I saw from she did and laughing that she want to have sex. She also said something like come to sex. That was also Abdulla’s understanding – that she wanted to have sex.’
The court also heard Al–Danasurt bought juice and croissants for his co–defendants after the ordeal and around 12 hours later had a barbecue with them, despite him alleging that Ahmadi had threatened him that evening.
On the barbecue, he said: ‘It was their idea, they told me ‘come with us to do this’, I didn’t refuse.’
A video of Al–Danasurt wearing filtered sunglasses in a selfie and a lit barbecue hours after the alleged rape was shown in court.
At the time of the alleged offences, all three defendants knew each other and were residents at the Cisswood House Hotel in Lower Beeding, near Horsham, West Sussex, which was Home Office–approved accommodation for asylum seekers, jurors heard.
Ahmadi, of Crewe in Cheshire and Alshafe, of Lower Beeding, have each denied two counts of raping the woman.
Al–Danasurt, also of Lower Beeding, is jointly charged on all four rape counts as a secondary party ‘encouraging the rape by his actions at the scene, including filming it’, and has pleaded not guilty to all four charges.
He denies a fifth count of ‘sharing intimate films’ without the complainant’s consent.
The charge relates to an allegation that Al–Danasurt sent recordings of the alleged rapes to Ahmadi’s phone via Snapchat shortly after the incident.
The trial continues.
