Chinese student Zhenhao Zou convicted of multiple assaults

A Chinese PhD student who raped ten women and filmed some of the attacks is facing jail after he was convicted by a jury.

Zhenhao Zou, 27, admitted he liked ‘girls to be still and quiet’ during sex but claims they all consented.

He denied but was convicted of eleven charges of rape on ten alleged victims, ten of possession of an extreme pornographic images and three counts of voyeurism and one of false imprisonment.

Zou was cleared of two counts of possessing extreme porn images.

The jury is still considering eight charges of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Aided by a Mandarin interpreter, bespectacled Zou appeared at Inner London Crown Court today (weds) wearing a navy suit as the verdicts were announced.

Jurors were reduced to tears during the trial as they were shown videos shot by Zou in the four week trial.

At the start of one recording, Zou can be seen placing a camera on the bed as an unconscious woman is lying naked.

Zou moves her into position to have sex as the woman says ‘I don’t want’ and then repeatedly shouts ‘no’ in Mandarin as he continues the assault.

She becomes upset and begins to cry as Zou continues to have sex with her.

Jurors were shown nine further videos showing Zou having sex with nine women – two in London and seven in unknown locations in China.

Another woman on the clip appears to have bruising to her eye, cheekbone and above the eye brow.

There were also several other photos taken that show Zou having sex with her.

The jury were shown two more videos that did not involve Zou but were found on one of his devices.

They showed two unknown females, who again appeared unconscious, being penetrated by unknown men.

The first recording showed an unconscious woman being slapped in the face while the man having sex with her holds a small bottle to the camera.

The second recording shows a woman naked and wearing an eye mask, barring one noise, she appears to be unaware of what is happening throughout and an unknown male has sex with her.

These films were made by associates of Zou’s who offered eachother tips and advice in what may be a huge ring of drug rapists.

Zou’s crimes came light in May 2023 when one of the women, a Chinese national, made an allegation of rape to police.

She gave evidence against Zou aided by a Mandarin interpreter behind a thick scarlet curtain and told jurors how she went to Zou’s 39th floor flat for drinks on 18 May 2019.

Zou refused to let her leave and dragged her into his bedroom.

The woman described the traumatic experience in a post on WeChat she titled: ‘A pervert and a dirty old man.’

‘The main thing is I was too stupid and too trusting,’ she said in her post.

‘Why did I not say that I wanted to go to the lounge and sleep there, I might have said that but I had drunk too much.

‘I asked him for 90,000 (RMB) when I got home. He said it was not okay and he could give me gifts. I sent him a bag, and then a few days later he said that was not okay.’

She ended her post by warning other women: ‘To every girl, when this happens to you, call the police.’

‘I do not care about the money. I did not want to escalate this matter but I felt he did not want to offer the minimum compensation.

‘After the incident I did not control my emotions very well. I was very excited and I did not judge the situation very well. I thought it would make me feel good if I got a gift from him.’

She told police: ‘I was drunk, I was really tired, I can’t fight back, I have no strength.’

The woman then told how Zou ‘raped me when I was unconscious.’

Another woman contacted her after seeing the post and gave her permission for her contact details to be given to police.

Police raided Zou’s flat in the Elephant Castle and found a variety of date rape drugs including Ketamine, Xanax, MDMA, and multiple 500ml bottles of Butanediol.

Videos of women being attacked were recovered from two cameras in the 39th floor flat.

There was also a pack of Viagra pills inside a Louis Vuitton bag in his bedroom.

Several images of women lying unconscious near bottles with the ‘effect guaranteed’ caption written on them were also shown to jurors from chats on Zou’s phone.

There were also screenshots of conversations involve several men also interested in stupefying and assaulting women which Zou had encrypted in the Potato app.

One person wrote: ‘Fell asleep shortly after taking it, fell deep asleep, first just said ‘being tired’, shortly afterwards fell directly asleep, falling asleep until 9am this morning.’

Another replied: ‘Yes, yes, this is how it is – hi dear, how much have you used?’

The person said: ‘I mixed it with a big quantity of drinks, so used about 7ml’ to which the second party responded, ‘you’ve used a bit too much, 5ml is more than enough dear.’

On Zou’s phone was also a Q&A about drugging terminology.

One question about the difference between ‘wild fuel’ and ‘proscribed fuel’, was answered: ‘Wild fuel refers to drugs produced by an unofficial manufacturer or small manufacturers.

‘Such drugs do not have clearly identified ingredients and often have serious side effects.’

The Q&A also explained the term ‘three piece kit’ as the ‘currently most used three drugs’ for drugging victims.

The screenshot stated: ‘The three piece kit is well-proven by previous users’ and that the ‘ease of use in alternatives are not good enough when compared with the kit.’

The process of drugging was described in the screenshot as a ‘sick hobby’ and users were warned: ‘Please think carefully before taking part, if caught, the consequences are serious.’

Another screenshot saved in a folder on Zou’s phone contained information about a drug called FM2, a sedative which puts victims into a deep sleep.

Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly, KC, told the court: ‘There are villains who mix it in drinks to give to young girls and drug rape them after they fell asleep and lose resistance.

‘It is known as a rape drug, does harm to physical and mental wellbeing and is addictive.’

The medicine was accompanied by the words ‘quality guaranteed – full refund if it does not work.’

It was described as as a ‘colourless and odourless liquid, first choice in all sex service venues and bars.

Zou said: ‘It can be speedily mixed in any drinks such as alcohols, soda or other soft drinks such as coffee, milk or tea etc.’

He advised: ‘One dosage is three-to-six millilitre and depends on user, after administration the drug takes effect in 20 minutes and lasts up to three hours.

‘The user will remain in a deep sleep for up to three hours and will lose memories during the time and won’t be able to recall anything that has happened.’

Several of the images were found by police to have been pixellated and did not reveal the sender or recipient of the messages included.

One was named: ‘drug facilitated sexual assault wife’.

A PDF document was found on his laptop in Mandarin the title of which translated to ‘Club Drugs and Their Acute Toxic Effects.’

Zou, originally from Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, northwest of Hong Kong, told the court his father worked for a ‘state-owned enterprise’ while his mother was a teacher.

His parents owned several properties in China but Zou did not know the ‘exact number’.

After graduating from Guangdong University Of Technology he first came to UK in 2017 to study engineering at Queen’s University in Belfast.

In 2019 he began a master’s degree at University College London before beginning a PhD there in 2021.

Some of the clips shown during the trial were filmed at Zou’s student accomodation in Woburn Place near Russell Square, from September 2019 to September 2020.

‘It may have seemed to the outside world this defendant was quite a charming man,’ said Ms Farrelly.

‘He was and is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and every women’s nightmare.

‘He is a serial rapist. He is a predator. He is a man who would use either drink or drugs to incapacitate women and take advantage of the when there was nothing they could do to protect themselves.’

Zou, of Churchyard Row, Elephant and Castle, denied was convicted of eleven charges of rape on ten alleged victims, twelve of possession of an extreme pornographic images, three counts of voyeurism, one of false imprisonment and eight counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Trophies hoarded by Zou may help detectives trace the dozens of victims who have yet to come forward.

Zou, 27, is thought to have attacked at least 60 women after he spiked their drinks with date rape drugs.

He is facing a life sentence after he was convicted of ten attacks – three attacks when he was studying in the UK between 2019 and 2023 and seven in China.

His ‘modus operandi’ was to bring women back to his flat, before offering them a drink containing a drug and then raping them while they were left ‘stupefied’.

Commander Kevin Southworth, head of public protection at the Met, said Zou was ‘the most substantial and prolific offender that we’ve come across in recent times.’

Detectives examined 1,270 separate videos along with nine million messages recovered from Zou’s devices reveal at least a further 50 victims.

The Met had to adapt their software with a special line of code to go through all the items sent by Zou.

But they were not able to trace the many victims of Zou has claimed who have never contacted the police.

Some had personal items stolen by him as twisted trophies and detectives are hoping they may jog the memories of women who may have been drugged by the rapist.

Detective Chief Inspector Richard McKenzie said: ‘Our message to potential victims is to please come forward and speak to us.

‘We can offer support and signpost to external support so each victim can get the support they want and need.

‘We also know that Zou kept items from victims such as jewellery and clothing and we hope that showing these items may jog victim’s memory.

‘Due to the nature of the offending we know that some of them may not know that they have been a victim, and we do not underestimate how distressing this can be.’

Police believe that many of the victims are from the Chinese student community, with roughly half of the other offences being committed in the UK, and the other half in China.

Their appeal has been translated into Chinese and will be shared across apps like WeChat and Little Red Book in an attempt to engage with those communities.

Commander Southworth admitted that even the estimate of 25 other victims of Zou in the UK, may be an understatement.

He said: ‘It may go beyond that once we have the appeal out there. It is only as indicative at this point.

‘We really are in that space where we can go with an indicative figure of 60, which we can fully support on the evidence. It may be more.

‘He’s the most substantial and prolific offender that we’ve come across in recent times.

‘The calculating predatory nature of what he’s been charged with is fairly unprecedented.

‘It’s certainly not something I’ve seen in my 28 years of policing.’

Chief Inspector McKenzie added: ‘Undoubtedly more victim survivors will come forward.

‘It starts with this trial it will role on to further trials when we gain further evidence, which I hope we will attain through this appeal.

He said it may well be other victims cannot recall exactly what happened to them after they met Zou.

‘The best evidence might be: “I don’t know what happened”’ Commander Southworth added.

When police raided Zou’s 39th floor Elephant and Castle apartment they found a variety of date rape drugs including Ketamine, Xanax, MDMA, and multiple 500ml bottles of Butanediol.

They also discovered he was a man of ‘substantial means’ as the rent on his flat was ‘in the thousands per month.’

Zou came from a wealthy family and he had wardrobe full of designer clothes and a Rolex watch.

Detectives had to trawl through a vast amount of material – pictures, videos, chat room posts and literally millions of message.

Detective Superintendent Vanessa Britton said: ‘It’s unprecedented and it’s painstaking. That’s an understatement.

‘If the messages were written in English and an investigator took just one second on each message, it would take over 900 days to review all of those messages.’

Zou was ‘charming’ in interview and told detectives he was ‘self-assured.’

He spoke repeatedly through a translator in his interviews and in court, despite having studied his PhD in mechanical engineering in English.

Commander Southworth expressed ‘severe regrets’ for the way one of the victims was first treated by police operators.

Her emergency call was played in court and the translator failed to understand her saying the word ‘rape’.

Victims that come forward will be offered a comprehensive translation option.