British court finds Chinese PhD student guilty of drugging, raping 10 women in London and China

LONDON: A Chinese PhD student was found guilty on Wednesday (Mar 5) by a London court of drugging and raping 10 women in England and China, as police warned there could be more than 50 other victims.

Zou Zhenhao, 28, was convicted of the attacks between 2019 and 2023 following a month-long trial at the Inner London Crown Court. He was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim.

After more than 19 hours of deliberations, jurors concluded Zou raped three of the women in London and seven in China.

Foreign nationals living in the UK can be charged with an offence committed abroad that is also illegal in the country where it took place, the BBC reported.

Police have only been able to identify two of the victims and said after the verdict that more than 50 other women may have fallen victim to Zou, which would make him one of the worst sex offenders in UK history.

Using hidden or handheld cameras to record the attacks, Zou filmed nine of the attacks as “souvenirs” and often kept a trophy box of women’s belongings.

Zou, a mechanical engineering student who was doing his PhD at University College London, claimed that the sexual interactions were consensual. He will be sentenced on Jun 19.

Jurors, who had to watch footage of the attacks during the trial, were given regular breaks.

Judge Rosina Cottage described the defendant as a "dangerous and predatory sexual offender" and said his sentence will be "very long".

Zou, who showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out in court, was also convicted of three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and three of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offense, namely butanediol.

He was cleared of two further counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image and one of possession of MDMA with intent to commit a sexual offence. MDMA is a drug commonly known as ecstasy.

Zou, who also used the name Pakho online, befriended fellow students of Chinese heritage on WeChat and dating apps before inviting them for drinks and drugging them at his apartments in London or an unknown location in China.

The UK Metropolitan Police said Zou’s home was searched after a woman came forward to report him.

Police found the drugs butanediol and ketamine, as well as a number of hidden cameras. They seized laptops and mobile phones, which helped uncover the scale of Zou’s offending.

Officers downloaded 6.5 terabytes of data from the devices, including hundreds of videos and around nine million WeChat messages.

“He has done all that he can in these offenses to incapacitate his victims to the point where they could not resist his attack, and in many instances may not even remember what has occurred to them,” said Metropolitan Police Commander Kevin Southworth.

The Metropolitan Police said it was assisted by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, which helped to facilitate a victim-survivor giving evidence against Zou.

Southworth thanked the two women who testified against the "particularly cowardly and deceitful" Zou and said there is evidence that he "may have potentially attacked as many as 50 other women in the same awful nature".

The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force.

During the trial, a call to the police from one of the women led to questions over the quality of the interpreter made available.

"It’s a matter of severe regret that the victims didn’t necessarily get that best translation at the time," Southworth added.

Zou, who is from Dongguan in China's Guangdong province, moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2017 to study mechanical engineering at Queen’s University. He headed to UCL in 2019 for a master’s degree and then a PhD.

"Our thoughts are with the survivors and we wish to pay tribute to the bravery of the women who reported these crimes and gave evidence at the trial," said UCL’s president, Dr Michael Spence.

Zou's case had trended on popular Chinese microblogging website Weibo in February when he told a jury he had "enjoyed rape role play". 

His case had ignited outrage among Chinese netizens and many wished for a harsh punishment for him. Some also called out Chinese media outlets for pixellating Zou's mugshot in their reports. 

"I really don't understand, why (is the accused's face) pixellated when exposing such heinous acts?" one Weibo user, Kai, wrote.

Another user Hui Zhou said: "Just let this garbage rot in jail, don't let him return (to China)." 

A handful of similar comments were made on social media platform Xiaohongshu after the verdict yesterday.

Additional reporting by Lakeisha Leo