Serial rapist who drugged victims to be sentenced for 24 sexual offences

A serial rapist who drugged victims and placed a hidden camera in an air freshener will be sentenced on Friday for a string of sexual offences.

Chao Xu, 33, of Greenwich, south-east London, pleaded guilty to 24 sexual offences over the course of three years, including rape, sexual assault and upskirting, at a plea and trial preparation hearing at Woolwich Crown Court in August.

The Chinese national will be sentenced at the same court on Friday.

Police were first alerted to Xu’s offending after a networking event he held at one of his home addresses in Greenwich in June.

He offered one of the women in attendance to stay in his flat to recover after she became unwell, and proceeded to rape her multiple times, the Metropolitan Police previously said after Xu’s guilty pleas.

Officers discovered later that he had administered drugs to her that are known to cause drowsiness and incapacitation.

Police also found Xu had hidden camera devices in multiple locations, including inside an air freshener and in bathrooms, and had hundreds of intimate images and videos of women on his phone, believed to have been obtained without consent.

The court also heard that in relation to the charges of operating equipment beneath the clothing of another without consent – known as upskirting – the defendant used cameras at a workplace and at London Bridge underground station.

In August, Xu admitted four counts of rape, eight counts of assault by penetration, four counts of sexual assault, four counts of voyeurism, two counts of administering a substance with intent, and two counts of operating equipment beneath the clothing of another without consent between February 2022 and June 2025.

The judge at the time, Recorder Simon Stirling, told Xu: “You have pleaded guilty to a large number of offences for which the inevitable outcome is a lengthy custodial sentence.”

Xu pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault and one count of assault by penetration but the Crown announced it would not be pursuing a trial on those charges and asked for them to lie on the file.