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A serial intercourse predator is suspected of raping greater than 60 ladies whereas finding out in London, because the Met Police launch an pressing attraction for victim-survivors.
Zhenhao Zou, 28, has been convicted of raping 10 ladies between 2019 and 2023 by drugging them during social encounters, raping them at his flat, filming the encounters and holding twisted souvenirs corresponding to jewelry and underwear from his victims.
An investigation into his offending discovered a trove of material on numerous cellular units and cameras totalling greater than 1,660 hours of footage, which has led police to conclude that a lot of victims stay unidentified.
Describing the UCL PhD pupil as “probably the most prolific and substantial” sex offenders the Met have come throughout in recent times, his true variety of victims stays unknown as investigators proceed to trawl by means of 6.5 terabytes of information seized from his units.
It was found that his sample of offending would repeatedly embrace chatting with ladies on-line, earlier than inviting them to his pupil flat at Woburn Place or his luxurious house in Elephant and Castle on the pretext of finding out or socialising.
He would give them a spiked drink earlier than sexually assaulting and raping them. Secret cameras have been hidden across the room to seize his actions. Throughout his trial at Interior London Crown Court docket, Zou instructed jurors that his favourite kind of pornography was ”time-stop”, which options ladies who’re motionless or asleep.
“It was after evaluation of graphic and disturbing materials held on his machine that we have been in a position to uncover the dimensions of his offending,” DCI Vanessa Britton stated.
“We consider there could also be greater than 60 different ladies who could also be victim-survivors and aren’t but recognized by the police.”
This determine contains the ten ladies offences in opposition to whom he has been discovered responsible of at trial, but solely two of his victims have been recognized and have been in a position to help the prosecution case. An additional 50 victims have been recognized in movies showing unconscious and unable to consent to sexual exercise.
Metropolitan Police Commander Kevin Southworth stated: “Zou was clearly a harmful, prolific and predatory particular person who preyed on his victim-survivors in essentially the most cowardly and despicable method.
“Along with the costs that you simply’ve seen introduced throughout this trial, we even have proof that he might have probably attacked as many as 50 different ladies in the identical terrible nature, and that’s why we’re launching this attraction now within the hope that as lots of these victim-survivors as doable will come ahead and provides us the chance to provide them the help that they deserve, and finally carry him to the additional justice that he deserves for what he has finished.
From his flight information and the information pulled from the footage, police consider half of the victims are in China. Chatting with reporters, the detectives main the case confirmed that his goal demographic was primarily younger Chinese language ladies who might have been finding out or dwelling in London.
Describing the investigation as “unprecedented and painstaking”, DCI Britton stated: “Finally this determine is an indicative determine of what we consider the offending is. It could be greater than that.”
Zou first moved to the UK in 2017 from China to check at Queen’s College in Belfast, earlier than happening to check for a PhD on the prestigious UCL in 2019. Throughout that interval, he resided in pupil halls in Bloomsbury earlier than shifting to the Uncle constructing in south London.
He had been thought-about a “mannequin pupil” and had been sociable all through his time within the UK, attending nightclubs and throwing events.
It was throughout this era that he additionally admitted to consuming Class A medication corresponding to cocaine and ketamine. He additionally underwent cosmetic surgery that included a hair transplant and alterations to his eyelids, chin and enamel.
Upon his arrest, police stated he appeared “charming and confident” throughout interviews regardless of the proof within the movies “clearly displaying him in a distinct mild”.
His flat value hundreds of kilos per thirty days in lease and was stuffed with designer clothes, luxurious equipment and baggage. Zou instructed jurors his father labored for a state-owned enterprise.
Zou first got here to the eye of police in Might 2023, when a girl reported that she had been raped at his flat.
The Met has since stated they’ve “extreme remorse” over the way in which this preliminary report was dealt with. There have been difficulties with the translator and the decision handler was impatient.
The sufferer didn’t pursue the allegation at the moment, however police discovered a social media publish in February 2024 wherein she gave her account of what occurred.
When contacted by detectives, she stated that she had been invited again to Zou’s flat for a drink after a gathering, and that he had compelled her to drink vodka and refused to let her go away, earlier than raping her.
The second sufferer recognized by police made contact with the primary girl in response to social media posts of hers on LittleRedBook and WeChat, and gave her account of what had occurred to her.
She had consensual intercourse with Zou on one event in September 2021. The next month, after a dinner with mates, she discovered herself alone with him on the street in Chinatown and remembers vomiting.
Her subsequent reminiscence is of Zou raping her at his flat. She instructed police that she had requested him to cease earlier than she misplaced consciousness.
When his flat was searched a “trophy field” crammed with ladies’s possessions was present in his wardrobe.
The pressure stated they’re holding an “open thoughts” however are eager to talk to anybody who might have studied or identified Zou whereas he lived in London, and anybody who might have socialised with him in China or on-line.
Zou has been convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to at least one sufferer, in addition to three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possession of an excessive pornographic picture, certainly one of false imprisonment and three of possession of a managed drug, butanediol, with intent to commit a sexual offence.
He was cleared of two additional counts of possession of an excessive pornographic picture, certainly one of possession of MDMA with intent to commit a sexual offence, and 4 counts of possession of ketamine with intent to commit a sexual offence.
The Metropolitan Police are interesting to anybody who thinks they could have been focused by Zou to contact the pressure both by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or by means of the main incident public portal on the pressure’s web site.
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