Darker side of the beach

Yesterday, a brief hearing at Brighton Crown Court set a trial date for the criminal case concerning the alleged rape on Brighton Beach at about five in the morning on 4 October 2025. Three men, each charged with two counts of rape, appeared before the court (Brighton and Hove News). However, one of the defendants, a 25-year-old Iranian man, required a Kurdish interpreter, but only an Arabic interpreter was present, forcing the court to adjourn the formal arraignment. The other two defendants, both Egyptian nationals aged 20 and 25, waited in the dock as the judge worked through the scheduling problems that have delayed the case since October.

The alleged offence took place on the lower esplanade, a stretch of seafront below the main promenade and between the piers - an area of the beach that can remain busy even through the small hours. The investigation has been running under the Sussex Police codename Operation Brampton. The woman, aged 33, reported that she did not know the men. Officers made arrests quickly, and since mid-October all three defendants have been held in custody while interpreters, legal representation and immigration-status documents have been assembled for the Crown.

Det Supt Andrew Harbour was quoted in The Guardian and the BBC on 6 October: ‘This has been a fast-paced investigation with all three suspects having been identified thorough investigative work. I commend the bravery of the victim who we continue to support with specialist officers.’

At yesterday’s hearing, the court confirmed that the full trial will begin on Monday 16 March 2026 and is expected to last around three weeks. Until then the defendants will remain on remand. The judge repeated that the timetable would not be pushed back again, noting the need to avoid further delay for both the complainant and the defendants. With the administrative obstacles now cleared, the next significant moment in the case will come in the spring, when the jury is sworn and the evidence is heard for the first time.

Although hard numbers are obscured by under-reporting and shifting terminology in press archives, Brighton has seen a small but consistent pattern of rape cases reported specifically on the beach itself across the last half-dozen years. According to ChatGPT, police statements and the publicly visible press record suggest roughly a dozen distinct investigations since 2019, many centred on the two-pier corridor and the lower esplanade. It is worth noting, however, that the media footprint is significantly larger, because each incident generates multiple appeals, hearings and follow-ups, producing dozens of articles and giving the impression of a wider surge than the underlying case numbers alone might indicate.