Student who filmed assaults guilty of drugging and raping 10 women

A PhD student has been convicted of drugging and raping 10 women.

Chinese national Zhenhao Zou, 28, attacked two women who have been identified and another eight who have yet to be traced, his trial at Inner London Crown Court heard.

He filmed nine of the assaults as "souvenirs", and kept a trophy box of victims' belongings, jurors heard.

Zou, who was studying at University College London, was also found guilty of voyeurism, possession of extreme pornographic images and false imprisonment. The jury is still considering four further charges of possessing controlled drugs with intent to rape.

Seven of the rapes took place during the pandemic in China. The evidence of those attacks was videos shown to the jury that he kept of him having sex with unconscious and semi-conscious women. Police have never identified them.

Four of the rapes took place in London. Two women were identified and gave evidence; the other two rapes were of the same woman, but she has never been tracked down.

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.

Some had been filmed at his flats in Bloomsbury and Elephant and Castle, others at an unknown location in China.

The student told the jury he had discussed sexual preferences with one of the women he filmed, and she had said she liked "uniform role play".

"We specifically discussed the kinds of role play I like, which was rape role play," he said. Zou told the court this was how the videos came to be made.