Student accused of raping 10 women 'kept souvenirs'

A PhD student accused of being a persistent sexual predator” allegedly filmed himself raping multiple women while they were unconscious, a court has heard.

- HOLLY EVANS

Zhenhao Zou, 27, allegedly drugged or pressured 10 different women to drink large quantities of alcohol, before sexually assaulting them and taking intimate pornographic images.

At the time, he had been studying an engineering course at University College London, having studied in the UK for the last seven years after moving from China.

He was arrested after one of the women reported him to the police, which led to them seizing his camera and mobile phone. As a result, multiple videos were uncovered which depicted several women appearing unconscious.

Mr Zhenhao, of Southwark, has denied 35 offences which include 11 rapes on 10 women, 12 charges of possession of extreme pornographic images, three counts of voyeurism, one of false imprisonment and eight counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply.

Jurors at Inner London Crown Court heard two of the women had been identified but not the remaining eight.

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, had initially appeared as “a smart and charming young man”.

“The prosecution says that he is a persistent sexual predator; a voyeur and a rapist,” prosecutor Catherine Farrelly KC said.

“The prosecution case at this trial is that he would meet women, he would stupefy them, either with drugs or with alcohol, and, once they were significantly under the influence of drink or drugs, he would then rape them.