How PhD student becomes ”one of the most serial, prolific and predatory offenders in the history of British policing”

Zhenhao Zou, 28, a PhD student studying Engineering at University College London has been convicted of drugging and raping ten women with the possibility of being one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.

He attacked as many as 50 more victims using illicit drugs to render them unconscious.

His criminality became known after a woman came forward to the Metropolitan Police to report she was raped by Zou after he forced her to repeatedly drink vodka in May 2023.

In an “extraordinary case”, officers then uncovered more than 1,600 hours of footage from his mobile phone and secret cameras believed to show the Chinese national carrying out his abuse.

The “graphic and disturbing material” was so clear that prosecutors were able to charge Zou with 11 rapes of 10 women, despite only identifying two victims.

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But officers fear he attacked as many as 25 more women in London and 25 in China, and are appealing for them to come forward.

The Met say it would make Zou “one of the most serial, prolific and predatory offenders in the history of British policing”.

“He’s offended to such a degree and over such a period of time, it does stand him apart from most of the other cases that certainly I’ve experienced in my career”, Commander Kevin Southworth told LBC.

“That’s why we’re launching this appeal now in the hope many of those victim-survivors will recognise Zou and make contact with us, so we can give them the support they deserve, and bring him to justice for his awful offending”.

The Chinese national moved to London in 2019 to do a masters degree before studying a PhD in engineering at UCL.

He was found guilty of raping three women at his student accommodation in the capital, and seven when he visited home in China, between 2019 and 2023.

He appeared to be living out a fantasy, telling the jury his “favourite type” of porn involved sleeping women, and admitted to enjoying “rape role-play”.

Footage was played during his trial at Inner London Crown Court, with some jury members in tears as they watched.

A video of the attack on an identified victim showed the unconscious woman appearing to wake up, with Zou telling her “don’t push me, it’s pointless” and “the sound insulation here is very good”.

Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly KC told the jury “at one point in the recording, she can be heard screaming repeatedly. She appears to try and get up from the bed on several occasions and the defendant pushes her back down each time”.

Zou denied 11 counts of rape against 10 victims, claiming the women were pretending to be unconscious and had agreed to lie still whilst he filmed them having sex.

Officers found drugs including the ‘date rape’ drug GHB in his flat, which he used to stupefy his victims to attack them.

The jury convicted him of rape, three counts of voyeurism, one of false imprisonment and three of having a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence.

He was also found guilty of ten counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, relating to the footage and images he’d taken of the attacks.

-LBC