Cops reveal 23 potential victims of one of UK’s worst rapists have come forward after predator drugged and filmed women
POLICE have revealed 23 potential victims of one of the UK’s worst rapists have come forward after the fiend drugged and filmed women.
Zhenhao Zou was found guilty of raping ten women between 2019 and 2023 in the UK and China and will be sentenced in June.
The 27-year-old “stupefied” his victims using vast amounts of alcohol or drugs to fulfil his depraved sexual fantasies.
He then carried out horrific sex attacks, which he filmed to keep as “souvenirs” to watch back for his “own private sexual gratification”.
After his conviction, the Met Police revealed Zou could have targeted at least 50 other women who are yet to be identified.
Officers launched an international appeal for potential victims to come forward.
The force today confirmed 23 people have got in touch to say they may have been raped by Zou.
It is not yet clear if the 23 people are included in the police estimate of 50 women or if they are further potential victims.
Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “Given how prolific Zou seems to have been, there is every potential he could be one of the most prolific offenders that we’ve ever seen in this space.”
Work is now underway to see if the 23 fresh potential cases could result in Zou facing further charges.
Detectives examined 1,270 separate videos along with nine million messages recovered from his devices to reveal more victims.
They – along with eight of the ten women Zou was convicted of raping – have not been identified by police.
Police released an image of jewellery and clothing that the fiend kept as twisted souvenirs in a bid to track down potential victims.
Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.
“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.
“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.
“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”
During his trial, jurors were told Zou first came to UK in 2017 to study engineering at Queen’s University in Belfast.
In 2019, he began a master’s degree at University College London before beginning a PhD there in 2021.
The court heard between 2019 and 2023, he raped two of the women in London, while the other eight were at unknown locations in China.
Mr Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.
“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.
“We haven’t had any victim-survivors yet report an offence in Belfast but we’re open-minded about that.
“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.
“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”
Haunting videos recovered by police showed victims being raped while they were unconscious or semi-conscious and slurring their words.
In one, the woman appeared to have bruising to her eye, cheek bone and above the eye brow.
Another victim, who was drugged but conscious, cried out “I don’t want” as she was attacked by Zou.
His depraved crimes came to light in November 2023 when one brave woman – a Chinese national – reported him to the police.
She told how she was dragged into a bedroom by Zou, who made her drink vodka laced with drugs before he raped her.
Officers raided Zou’s flat in London and found a variety of date rape drugs including Ketamine, Xanax and MDMA.
They also discovered multiple 500ml bottles of Butanediol, which is made into well-known date-rape drug GHB by the body when swallowed.
Police recovered his devices, which uncovered an “unprecedented” wealth of material for them to investigate.
They found Zou was “constantly” engaged in conversations on social media sites like WeChat and Little Red Book, which led to more than nine million messages being uncovered.
Officers will now use those sites to get their appeal for further victims across.
Mr Southworth said detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables (the potential victims) to give evidence in the best possible way.”
He added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”
Anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk or via the major incident public portal.