Chinese PhD student in London gets life sentence for drugging and raping multiple women
Zou Zhenhao, 28, is considered by the police in London to be “one of the most prolific predators” they have encountered. Investigators say there are probably many more victims.
A Chinese student who drugged and raped women in London and in his home country was given a life sentence on Thursday in a case that a senior British police officer said had uncovered “one of the most prolific predators we’ve ever encountered.”
The student, Zou Zhenhao, 28, was convicted of attacks on 10 women in England and China between 2019 and 2023, but investigators said they had identified 50 further victims in videos he recorded using cameras inside his homes.
At his sentencing hearing on Thursday, statements from three of his victims were read aloud, describing how they had been left suffering long-term psychological damage. One woman said she was “consumed by terror, confusion, anger and shame” after she regained consciousness following an attack.
Originally from Dongguan, in the Guangdong Province of southeastern China, Mr. Zou was studying mechanical engineering at University College London at the time of the rapes. He targeted women he met through the student community, as well as by using social media and dating websites. The police said that all his victims are believed to be Chinese.
Mr. Zou came from a wealthy family, and he said during the trial that his father worked in a “state-owned enterprise.”
In a statement to the court, one of his victims said she initially feared the consequences of reporting Mr. Zou to the police, adding: “I know his family is very powerful in China, and he may blame me for ruining what was a potentially prosperous future.”
Judge Rosina Cottage gave Mr. Zou a life sentence with a minimum term of 24 years before he can be considered for release.
“You are a very bright young man, you appeared to the world to be well-to-do, ambitious and charming, but that charming mask hid the fact you were a sexual predator,” she told Mr. Zou, who showed no reaction as the sentence was handed down.
Judge Cottage said that some of Mr. Zou’s victims had sent him messages challenging him about what he had done, but that he had “gaslit” them by telling them they had consented to sex.
The senior police officer who oversaw the investigation, Kevin Southworth, a commander in the Metropolitan Police in London, said that because Mr. Zou had incapacitated women with a cocktail of drugs that also affected memory, some victims may have “no idea what’s happened to them.”
“The sad fact of it is that there may well be some women on those videos who we may never identify, either because the images are too poor or we just can’t find them,” he said in an interview with The New York Times this week.
Mr. Zou had a fixed modus operandi, Mr. Southworth said, where he would engineer social situations that would result in women visiting one of his two luxury London flats. He would then spike their drinks using a concoction of drugs that would render them physically incapacitated and temporarily unconscious.
Using a combination of hidden cameras and mobile phones, Mr. Zou then filmed himself raping the women and manipulating their bodies. He also kept items of jewelry and clothing after the attacks, some of which were committed only days apart.
The jury at Mr. Zou’s trial was played videos of the 10 rapes he was charged with, and some jurors wept at the “extremely distressing” footage, the judge said. Some of the videos showed women regaining consciousness and begging him to stop.
Seven of the 10 women Mr. Zou was jailed for raping were attacked in China, during visits there in 2022 and 2023; two were assaulted in a flat in Bloomsbury, central London, in 2019 or 2020; and one was in Mr. Zou’s most recent London residence, in Elephant and Castle, in the central part of the city, in May 2023.
It was the victim of the last attack who first contacted the police, but she withdrew her report after doubting her memory and suffering a mental breakdown.
The woman said she “felt a responsibility to warn others,” and posted an account of the attack on social media. Another victim recognized the description from her own experience in 2021 — and she had Mr. Zou’s name, address and phone number.
When police officers arrested him in January 2024, they realized the scale of his offenses. A search of his home uncovered drugs including butanediol and ketamine, hidden cameras, and several laptops and mobile phones, which contained the videos Mr. Zou recorded of his attacks.
Mr. Zou studied at Queen’s University Belfast from 2017 to 2019, then moved to London for a master’s degree and then a doctorate. He had flaunted the “trappings of wealth” including wearing a Rolex watch, Mr. Southworth said. Mr. Zou had also undergone a hair transplant and had cosmetic surgery on his face.
Investigators said that by convincing women to visit his home voluntarily, and then using alcohol as a carrier for drugs that would affect their memory, Mr. Zou tried to minimize the chance that his victims would go to the police.
“I think he is someone who is arrogant enough to believe they could get away with this,” Mr. Southworth said.
Mr. Zou was jailed for 11 counts of rape against 10 women, as well as for three counts of voyeurism, 12 counts of possession of extreme pornographic images, one of false imprisonment and eight of possession of drugs with intent to commit a sexual offense.
Two victims gave evidence at the trial, and 24 other women who believe they were attacked by Mr. Zou have so far responded to an appeal launched by the Metropolitan Police when he was convicted in March.
The police said they had received assistance from the authorities in China, including arranging for a victim to give evidence by video link from the country. Mr. Southworth encouraged any other potential victims to come forward, saying they would be treated “with empathy, kindness and respect.”
Most Chinese news outlets who covered Mr. Zou’s conviction in March did not report his full name and blurred photos of his face.
There were signs that discussion of the case was being censored on Chinese social media soon after the verdict. Posts on Weibo and WeChat, two popular social media platforms, about the case were deleted, and at least one account that shared them was temporarily shut down, according to China Digital Times, a website that tracks Chinese internet censorship.
Some Chinese media outlets eventually posted about the case, including Jimu News, which is affiliated with state-controlled media in Hubei Province. But that report did not mention Mr. Zou’s wealth or family background.
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