Zhenhao Zou: PhD student from China who filmed attacks as 'souvenirs' convicted of raping 10 women

Zhenhao Zou, 28, was found guilty of the attacks after a month-long trial at Inner London Crown Court. He was convicted on Wednesday of the harrowing attacks involving two women who have been identified and another eight who have yet to be traced.

He filmed nine of the attacks as “souvenirs”, and kept a trophy box of women’s belongings, jurors in his trial were told. Zou previously denied 11 counts of rape, three of voyeurism, 12 of possession of extreme pornographic images and one of false imprisonment.

During the trial, Zou told a jury he enjoyed “rape role play”. He said the two videos shown at Inner London Crown Court of him having sex with an unidentified woman referred to in the trial as Female A were made after he had discussed his interest with her. The identity of the Female A is not known.

Mr Zou told the court he met the woman on a dating app called Soul in April 2022. He said they met up and had sex at his student accommodation in Bloomsbury, central London.

He said that on the second occasion they met, they had sex again and discussed their sexual preferences. She said she liked uniform role play. "We specifically discussed the kinds of role play I like, which was rape role play." He said that was how the videos came to be made.

On Wednesday, March 5, Zou was found found guilty of a total of 28 offences, including 11 counts of rape against 10 different women. A jury found Zou guilty after a five-and-a-half-week trial at Inner London Crown Court. He will be sentenced at the same court on Thursday, 19 June.

Zou is originally from Dongguan in the Guangdong Province of China and is believed to have lived in the UK since 2017. Before his arrest in January 2024, Zou was a student at University College London (UCL) since 2019 and prior to that studied at Queen’s University Belfast.

Zou met women using online platforms and dating apps, inviting them to his home under the guise of studying or to have drinks. Officers have established that he invited women back to his address - one in central London and another in Elephant and Castle.

Once inside he would offer them a drink which contained a substance – believed to be butanediol, which converts to GHB once in the human body. This would leave the victim-survivors drifting in and out of consciousness. While unconscious, he filmed himself as he raped and sexually assaulted them.

Zou also kept items from victim-survivors, such as jewellery and clothing. After a woman came forward to report Zou, police searched his home and found the drugs butanediol and ketamine, as well as a number of hidden cameras. They also seized a number of laptops and mobile phones, which later uncovered the true scale of Zou’s offending.

Officers downloaded the digital devices amounting to six and a half trillion bytes of data, which included around nine million WeChat messages. Met investigators spent months trawling through messages to understand Zou’s pattern of offending, painstakingly translating them into English from Simplified Chinese.

They also watched hundreds of videos stored on his devices, which appear to show Zou filming himself raping and sexually assaulting women. It was after analysis of this graphic and disturbing material that it became apparent that he had not only committed offences in London, but also in his home country of China too.

During the trial, officers were assisted by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, who helped to facilitate one of the brave victim-survivors giving evidence against Zou. As part of the investigation, the Met has also been supported by the Crown Prosecution Service, National Crime Agency and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The Metropolitan Police is now asking anyone who thinks they may have been a victim to come forward and speak with police. While detectives have identified two victim-survivors, eight of the women who Zou was convicted of raping remain unidentified. Beyond this, detectives believe there may be more than 50 other women who may have been a victim and have not yet been identified by police.

The force said: “Officers are keeping an open mind about the identities of unidentified victim-survivors, but are particularly keen to hear from women from the Chinese student community who may have met Zou and were living in and around London between 2019-2024. They also would like to speak to potential victims-survivors who may have met Zou while he was living in China.

“Women may have met Zou via online platforms, including student forums on the Chinese social media apps WeChat or XiaoHongShu, or may have spoken to him on dating apps, such as Bumble.

Victim-survivors may have visited Zou at his accommodation in Woburn Place in central London or his address in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle in London. Others may have met Zou when he was living in China.

Commander Kevin Southworth, lead for public protection at the Metropolitan Police, said: “Zhenhao Zou is a dangerous and prolific sexual predator, who manipulated and drugged women in order to prey on them in the most cowardly way.

“I’d like to acknowledge the two women who bravely gave evidence against Zou in court – their courage and resilience has been unwavering.

“We are determined to support all victim-survivors and are now asking women who believe they may have concerns about Zou to please come forward. I want to reassure anyone impacted that you are not alone and can seek specialist support and guidance, not only from the police, but also from independent charities and services.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the investigation team, who have shown professionalism, compassion and determination in their pursuit for justice.”