Zhenhao Zou, a Chinese language scholar who was discovered responsible by a London court docket of drugging and raping 10 girls in Britain and China, seems on on this handout image launched on March 5, 2025. — Picture from Metropolitan Police through Reuters
A Chinese language post-graduate scholar convicted of drugging and raping 10 girls within the UK and China and suspected of getting attacked extra was on Thursday jailed for all times by a London court docket.
Police in London say they’ve proof to counsel he could have focused greater than 50 different girls.
Serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, 28 — described in court docket as “calculated and predatory” — focused younger Chinese language girls whom he invited to his London flat for drinks or to review earlier than drugging and attacking them.
Zou filmed 9 of the rapes with hidden or handheld cameras, however solely three of the ten victims have ever been recognized.
Sentencing him at Inside London Crown Court docket, Decide Rosina Cottage mentioned there was “little question that you just deliberate and executed a marketing campaign of rape” that had brought about “devastating and long run results.”
To the world he appeared “properly to do, formidable and charming” however this was a masks hiding a “sexual predator,” she mentioned.
He handled his victims “callously” as “intercourse toys” for his personal gratification, and his want to say “energy and management over girls” meant that he can be a “threat for an indefinite interval,” she added.
Zou, carrying a darkish swimsuit and glasses, listened impassively within the dock to the sentence through a translator. He’ll serve a minimal of twenty-two years in jail, after accounting for time already spent in custody.
The previous engineering scholar at College Faculty London was discovered responsible by a jury in March of 28 offenses together with 11 counts of rape — with two of the counts relating to 1 lady — three counts of voyeurism and one in all false imprisonment.
He was discovered responsible of raping three girls in London and 7 in China between 2019 and 2023.
He was additionally convicted of three counts of possessing butanediol — an industrial solvent — with intent to commit a sexual offense and 10 counts of possession of an excessive pornographic picture.
READ: British police cost comic Russell Model with rape, sexual assault
‘Prolific’ rapist
Victims instructed the sentencing listening to in affect statements of the psychological harm they suffered together with nightmares, self hurt and a way of despair and isolation.
One recalled “wandering like a trapped animal looking for an exit” after she was attacked.
“What occurred that night time is etched into my soul endlessly,” she mentioned, including that Zou’s household was “very highly effective in China” and she or he feared he would “search revenge.”
After the sentence, Saira Pike of the Crown Prosecution Service described Zou as a “serial rapist and a hazard to girls.”
“His life sentence displays the heinous acts and hurt he brought about to girls and the hazard he posed to society.”
Evaluation of footage and net chats confirmed the previous scholar’s “meticulous planning and the horrifying execution of his crimes.”
And Pike paid tribute to the “brave girls” who got here ahead to report his “horrific crimes” and whose proof — mixed together with his personal movies — helped safe his conviction and life sentence.
Since he was convicted, and following a world enchantment by UK police, some 24 girls had come ahead to say they could have been sexually assaulted by Zou.
London’s Met police have mentioned they’ve proof to counsel he could have focused greater than 50 different girls and urged doable victims to return ahead, including that he had additionally studied in Belfast in Northern Eire in 2017.
“Our investigation stays open and we proceed to enchantment to anybody who might imagine they’ve been a sufferer of Zou,” mentioned Commander Kevin Southworth of the Metropolitan Police.
Your subscription couldn’t be saved. Please attempt once more.
Your subscription has been profitable.
“Please come ahead and communicate with our crew — we’ll deal with you with empathy, kindness and respect.” /das
