An Iranian Kurdish refugee seeking asylum attended court proceedings after video evidence captured him sexually attacking a woman on a stretch of coastline, with prosecutors describing the defendants as a collective of hunters.

Abdulla Ahmadi stands trial alongside two Egyptian nationals aged 20 and 25, identified as Karin Al-Danasurt and Ibrahim Alshafe.

The trio has denied sexually attacking a woman in her thirties after dragging her onto sand in October the previous year.

The court was told that at the time of the alleged attack, all three defendants were acquainted with one another and residing at Home Office-approved asylum seeker accommodation in Horsham.

Ahmadi told the jury in Hove that the woman had approached him and a companion after an evening out and asked for sexual activity.

Prosecutor Hanna Llwellyn-Waters KC said the woman had approached the defendants and asked for sex, and the men had exploited this situation.

The barrister stated that the defendants had behaved as hunters toward the woman, identifying her vulnerability and taking her to the beach where the attack occurred.

The prosecutor submitted that the men had humiliated the woman and found it entertaining.

Ahmadi responded that they had not done this, insisting he could not have attacked her and could not be intimate with someone who had spat at him.

Al-Danasurt faces accusations of sharing three video recordings of the incident.

The prosecutor noted that one recording shows Ahmadi trying to hide his face, suggesting he was aware of the wrongful nature of his actions while simultaneously smiling for friends.

The barrister observed that the defendants had acted collaboratively, encouraging each other like a pack of animals.

Ahmadi maintained the sexual encounter was consensual.

The prosecutor questioned whether the defendant was fabricating his account to avoid sounding implausible.

The court was told that Ahmadi had repeatedly been instructed to answer questions properly after claiming police had pressurised him and altered his witness statement.

The prosecutor asked whether he was deliberately sidestepping questions because he knew how absurd they sounded.

Ahmadi replied that he was not avoiding answering.

The prosecutor described the victim as attacked by men acting in concert who treated her as an object for their entertainment.

Both Ahmadi and Alshafe have denied two counts of sexual assault.

Al-Danasurt faces joint charges on all four assault counts as an accessory who facilitated the attacks through his actions at the location, including recording them, and has entered not guilty pleas to all charges.

He has denied a fifth charge of distributing intimate recordings without the victim’s consent.

The charge relates to allegations that Al-Danasurt sent recordings of the alleged assaults to Ahmadi’s mobile phone shortly after the incident.

The case continues.