PhD student at top London university 'raped ten unconscious women and filmed attacks as souvenirs'
PhD student at top London university 'raped ten unconscious women and filmed attacks as souvenirs'
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A PhD student at a top London university raped ten women he had plied with drink and drugs and filmed the attacks to keep as “souvenirs“, a court has heard. Zhenhao Zou, 27, is accused of carrying out a string of attacks on unconscious or semi-conscious women between September 2019 and May 2023.
He had a cache of drugs - MDMA, GHB, Ketamine, and Xanax – when he was arrested, as well as a collection of videos said to show the rapes, Inner London crown court heard. Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly KC said Zou, a Chinese national, is accused of being “a persistent sexual predator, a voyeur and a rapist“.
Jurors heard he spent two years studying Queen’s University in Belfast from 2017, before signing up for a Masters at University College London (UCL) in 2019 and two years later starting his studies for a PhD in engineering. “To the outside world, he undoubtedly presents as a smart and charming young man“, said Ms Farrelly.
“However, as you know from the indictment in this case which contains 35 allegations against him, the prosecution says that he is also a persistent sexual predator, a voyeur and a rapist. “The prosecution case at this trial is that he would meet women, he would stupefy them either with drink or drugs, and once they were significantly under the influence of drink or drugs, he would then rape them.
“Often, he would record himself doing so and during this trial you will be shown several recordings which the prosecution say are the defendant’s souvenirs of the many rapes that he had committed - items that he kept for his own private sexual gratification, so that he could watch, at his leisure, his rapes of these women, who he had rendered often unconscious and totally vulnerable to his will.“.
