Chinese PhD student guilty of drugging and raping 10 women

A Chinese PhD student has been convicted of drugging and 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.

The mechanical engineering student 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 offence, 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.

Zou showed no visible reaction as the verdicts were read out in court.

Prosecutors said Zou appears to be “a smart and charming young man”, but is in fact “a persistent sexual predator, a voyeur and a rapist”.

Jurors had to watch footage of nine of the rapes during court proceedings, appearing visibly upset and being given regular breaks as the troubling material was shown.

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

The student first moved to Belfast in 2017 to study mechanical engineering at Queen’s University before heading to London in 2019 to do a master’s degree and then a PhD at UCL.