One of Britain’s worst rapists suspected of targeting more than 60 victims was jailed for life today.
Chinese student Zhenhao Zou, 28, was described as an ‘evil’ sexual predator who hid behind a ‘charming mask’ as he was jailed for a minimum of 22 years for drugging and raping 10 women during his time studying at University College, London.
Following his conviction in March, detectives revealed they had evidence relating to suspected attacks on another 50 women in the UK and China after uncovering a sickening collection of trophy videos kept by the engineering PhD student as a souvenir.
Now a further 24 victims have come forward saying they were raped by Zou while he was studying in the UK. The fiend filmed some of his victims helpless and stupefied in sick home videos that he kept of his attacks.
Today victims told how they were ‘haunted’ by the sickening attacks as a judge said the sexual deviant had treated unconscious women like ‘sex toys’ for his own pleasure.
Inner London Crown Court heard today that Zou had offered to be chemically castrated to avoid a life sentence.
But Judge Rosina Cottage said he would always be a risk to the public because of his ‘sexual interest’ in ‘asserting power and control over women’, adding that the victims were just ‘pieces in an elaborate game’.
Jailing him for life, she said: ‘The charming mask hid the fact that you are also a sexual predator.’
The son of a wealthy Chinese Communist Party official and industrialist, Zou stalked student bars, accommodation and online dating apps looking for victims, plying unsuspecting women with drinks laced with drugs.
He lured the women back to his lavish student apartment in East London with the promise of a party or help with studies, before stupefying them with drink and drugs until they fell unconscious, enabling him to film his sickening attacks on hidden bedroom spy cameras.
One victim, whom Zou had described as ‘the perfect girlfriend choice’, recalled waking in a strange room after going to a drinking party in 2021: ‘I experienced for the first time a loss of consciousness.
‘I opened my eyes for a few seconds during the sexual assault in his room, he was thrusting violently against my body. I was completely powerless and could only use all my strength to demand he stop.
‘Although I lost consciousness just moments later, his face in that moment will clearly stay in my mind forever.’
She later awoke naked lying next to him: ‘Panic surged through me-everything about the room I was in was unfamiliar and I had no memory of how I got there.
‘That night, it was as if the world had vanished from my life for hours.
‘Everything in this world- my memories, time, even my own body- no longer felt like mine. Overwhelmed by fear, my only thought was to escape.
‘Stumbling out of his room, I found myself in a completely unknown place. I didn’t know where I was or how to leave. The memories of that night were fragmented- I only recall wandering like a trapped animal, desperately searching for an exit.
‘For over a week afterward, I locked myself in my bathroom, consumed by terror, confusion, anger, and shame.’
She added: ‘I still can’t read news about him or see his photo without feeling sick…
‘To this day, I struggle to trust anyone. I avoid new friendships, trapped in the aftermath of what he did.
‘Words will never fully convey the depth of this wound. But one thing is certain: what happened that night is etched into my soul forever. His face, his expression-they will never leave me.
‘I will never forgive him.’
Disturbingly, many of the women targeted may not realise they had been raped as some of Zou’s home videos showed his captives so incapacitated that he was able to slap one victim around the face without them rousing.
Zou unwittingly left a treasure trove of evidence for officers by recording the attacks for his own twisted gratification and hoarding personal items stolen from victims, ranging from underwear and lipstick to a Chanel earring.
By the time of his trial, only two of the 10 rape victims had been identified by police, but now detectives have traced a third victim.
Detectives have established from the video clips seized that there are at least another 50 unknown women attacked.
One victim said the attack in his London flat in May 2023 had a ‘severe impact’ on her mental health, resulting in her self-harming to try to manage the pain.
‘I have no trust in others. Before this incident, I was not aware that a human could do such evil things,’ she said in her victim impact statement.
‘I am in so much mental agony and pain. I am not sure anything will help what I have gone through.
‘When I heard that he had been found guilty, I was very pleased but even more pleased as I knew that women were safe, and there would be no more victims who would have to go through what I have gone through.
‘When I see his image I am overcome with fear.
‘I know his family is very powerful in China, and he may blame me for ruining his what was a potentially prosperous future. I believe he would confront me and seek revenge by doing horrible things.
‘I fear if he is released he will commit the same crime again, I do not think he has learnt his lesson, or ever will.’
The judge said of her case: ‘Outrageously, she was trolled on social media for having bravely warned others. It has rocked her to her core, she feels guilt for your behaviour, you (Zou) feel no shame.’
Another victim in China described being ‘gagged by shame’ and ‘haunted’ by nightmares following the attack.
Today, jurors who had earlier wept on seeing the distressing rape videos, returned to Inner London Crown Court to see him sentenced.
Bespectacled Zou, smartly dressed in a navy suit and tie, stared at jurors, showing no emotion as he was jailed.
Scotland Yard began investigating Zou in November 2023 after a woman reported him for rape.
When officers examined his digital devices, they uncovered more than 1,600 hours of videos.
Victims living in Britain, China, Australia, the Middle East and Europe have since come forward.
Chillingly, Zou said the victims in his videos were only pretending to be asleep as he enjoyed ‘time-stop’ pornography.
But officers believe the sexual deviant is one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders after Reynhard Sinaga and Black cab rapist John Worboys.
Sinaga, 42, was convicted of 159 sex attacks on 48 heterosexual men in Manchester between 2015 and 2017.
Worboys, 67, was convicted of 19 sex attacks against 12 women between 2006 and 2008.
Zou was convicted in March for raping three women in London and seven victims in China between September 2019 and May 2023.
He was also convicted of 11 counts of rape, 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 offence, namely butanediol.
Saira Pike, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘Zou is a serial rapist and a danger to women.
His life sentence reflects the heinous acts and harm he caused to women and the danger he posed to society.’
The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.
