A Chinese postgraduate student has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a catalog of rapes, voyeurism, and possession of extreme pornography, in what police and prosecutors described as one of the most prolific sexual predator cases ever uncovered in Britain.
Zhenhao Zou, 28, was convicted on Thursday of 28 offenses, including 11 rapes of 10 women, after a trial at Inner London Crown Court. He targeted women in the U.K. and China between 2019 and 2023, spiking their drinks with sedatives such as butanediol before raping them while they were unconscious or semi-conscious — all while filming the attacks for his own gratification.
The tapes of the multiple sexual assaults would ultimately be the smoking gun that led to his downfall.
“You appeared to the world to be well-to-do, ambitious, and charming,” said Judge Rosina Cottage KC during Zou’s sentencing hearing, noting that he originated from an affluent family back in his homeland. “In fact, that charming mask hid the fact that you are also a sexual predator.”
You met women socially or on social media apps in this country and in China, and organized to meet them in person. You would groom them with cheerful conversation over social media and perhaps one or two meetings that may not have involved sex, and then plan to stupefy them with drugs and alcohol. Once they were unable physically to resist you would rape them. Not only would you rape them, but you would film yourself doing so. This, on your evidence, heightened your sexual pleasure and gave you a trophy to remember each woman completely under your control. Sometimes they would try to resist — you would tell them that resistance was futile. You calmly and inexorably ignored their pleas for you to stop, that you were hurting them. Sometimes you would be begged to stop. Occasionally, that would irritate you, and you would tell them that they had no choice but to comply.
Zou will serve a minimum of 22 years and 227 days before he can even be considered for release. Even then, the Parole Board will only authorize his release if it deems he no longer poses a risk. If released, he will remain on a lifetime license. “Your offense is so serious that a sentence of life imprisonment is required,” Judge Cottage told him. “There is a high level of danger because of your distorted thinking and sexual preoccupation with rape.”
According to The Times, Zou studied mechanical engineering at University College London after earlier completing a degree in Belfast.
He used hidden cameras to record the sexual assaults at his apartments in London’s Bloomsbury and Elephant and Castle, as well as during trips to China. Some victims only learned of their abuse after waking up disoriented, naked, or after seeing social media posts from other women.
After an initial complaint was made against him in 2023, Zou fled to China for several months. Upon his return to the U.K. in January 2024, he was arrested and his properties were searched. Police found evidence of over 50 potential victims on his seized devices.
Several women testified against him during his trial. In a victim impact statement, one woman said, as quoted by the presiding judge, “The humiliation of being stripped of dignity, treated as nothing more than an object for your gratification haunts her. The thought of what happened makes her feel physically ill, and words cannot express her pain.”
Another victim was raped after Zou plied her with vodka laced with sedatives. When she tried to leave his flat, he physically prevented her. He later photographed himself lying beside her unconscious body as if they were lovers. “She has been so damaged by your behavior that it has rocked her to her very core,” the judge said. “She sadly feels guilt for your behavior — yet, you feel no shame.”
The court heard how Zou had stockpiled bottles of butanediol in his bedroom and searched online forums that glorified drug-assisted rape.
“You sought power over them and wielded it without any thought of their wishes, their feelings. These women you treated callously as sex toys for your pleasure,” she said. “They were simply pieces in an elaborate game for you.”
The jury reportedly wept as they watched distressing video footage of some of the assaults. In one case, a woman cried for her mother as she was pinned down; in another, Zou mocked a victim for begging him to stop in English.
Although Zou maintained that the encounters were “rape role-play,” the court categorically rejected this claim. “Having watched you give evidence, it is clear that you are a highly manipulative and intelligent young man who gave no thought at all to the wishes and feelings of the women that you penetrated and filmed,” said the judge.
The Metropolitan Police has continued to urge additional victims to come forward despite the convictions, with 24 more women having contacted the authorities post-trial. According to The Times, Chinese media outlets avoided naming him or mentioning his family background — Zou told the court that his father worked in a “state-owned enterprise” in China — and discussion of the case has reportedly been censored on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo and WeChat.
“Neither a determinate sentence nor an extended sentence would provide sufficient protection to the public,” Judge Cottage concluded. “Your desire to assert power and control over women means that you are a risk for an indefinite period.”
In an interview with The New York Times, Kevin Southworth, the senior investigating officer, lamented the fact that dozens of women will likely not get justice. “The sad fact 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.”
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