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A Chinese PhD student accused of drugging and raping 10 women appears to be “a smart and charming young man” but is in fact “a persistent sexual predator, a voyeur and a rapist”, a jury has been told. Zhenhao Zou, 27, appeared at Inner London Crown Court on Wednesday to face trial for 11 counts of rape against the women as well as three counts of voyeurism, 12 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and eight of possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply. Those substances are alleged to be MDMA, butanediol, ketamine and alprazolam.
The student, who moved to Belfast in 2017 to study at Queen’s University before coming to London in 2019 to do a master’s degree and then a PhD at UCL, denies all the charges. He is accused of filming himself attacking two of the alleged victims in London and the other eight in an unknown location in China between September 2019 and May 2023. Opening the prosecution case on Wednesday, Catherine Farrelly KC told jurors: “To the outside world, he undoubtedly presents as a smart and charming young man.
“However, as you know from the indictment in this case, the document which contains 35 separate criminal allegations against him, the prosecution say 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 those drinks 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 says are the defendant’s souvenirs of 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.” Zou sat in the dock wearing a navy blue suit, white shirt, and navy blue tie as the prosecution case opened. Earlier, Judge Rosina Cottage KC told jurors that while “it is easy to feel indignant; or shock, embarrassment and even disgust” at the material they will be shown, they must put aside their feelings and consider the evidence clinically.
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