Another 23 women say they have been raped by a Chinese PhD student feared to be one of the country’s most prolific sexual predators.
University College London (UCL) student Zhenhao Zou, 28, was last month found guilty of drugging and raping ten women, whose attacks he filmed using hidden cameras to keep as “souvenirs”. Only two of the victims were ever identified.
Judge Rosina Cottage said Zou was a “dangerous and predatory” offender and warned him he faces a “very long” jail term when he is sentenced in June.
Police issued a worldwide appeal for other victims to come forward after revealing they had found videos showing at least 50 unidentified women being assaulted by Zou, who also kept a trophy box of victims’ belongings including jewellery and clothing.
He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.
Detectives this week revealed more than 20 women have already come forward and police are investigating if they can identify them among the unknown victims.
Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth thanked the women for bravely coming forward, adding: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.
“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”
He warned that “there is every potential he could be one of the most prolific offenders that we’ve ever seen” and urged victims to get in touch.
He added: “Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.
“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”
During his trial at Inner London Crown Court, Zou told jurors that his favourite kind of pornography was ”time-stop”, which features women who are immobile or asleep.
Analysis of graphic and disturbing material on his devices allowed police to uncover the scale of his offending, with investigators finding more than 1,660 hours of footage.
Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”
Zou first moved to the UK in 2017 from China to study at Queen’s University in Belfast, before going on to study for a PhD at the prestigious UCL in 2019. During that period, he resided in student halls in Bloomsbury before moving to the luxurious Uncle building in south London.
He had been considered a “model student” and had been sociable throughout his time in the UK, attending nightclubs and throwing parties.
It was during this period that he also admitted to consuming Class A drugs such as cocaine and ketamine. He also underwent plastic surgery that included a hair transplant and alterations to his eyelids, chin and teeth.
Zou has been convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and three of possession of a controlled drug, butanediol, with intent to commit a sexual offence.
He was cleared of two further counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of possession of MDMA with intent to commit a sexual offence, and four counts of possession of ketamine with intent to commit a sexual offence.
The Metropolitan Police are appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or through the major incident public portal on the force’s website.
