Zhenhao Zou: Woman woke to being raped by PhD student, court told

BBC News

07-02-2025

A man accused of multiple rapes attacked a woman as she fell in and out of consciousness, a court has heard.Zhenhao Zou, a 27-year-old Chinese national who was studying in the UK, denies 11 counts of rape as well as three counts of voyeurism, 12 of possession of an extreme pornographic image and one of false imprisonment.Earlier, Inner London Crown Court saw a police interview where the complainant described being raped.During the interview she said that Mr Zou told her afterwards: "I thought you were conscious. I thought you knew what you were doing."
The jury was also told the alleged victim would give evidence via a video link from China on Monday morning.
The woman said she had originally met Mr Zou at a friend's dinner party in September 2021. That night she had consensual sex with him in his room that was in a shared house.About a month later she arranged a night out for her birthday, she said. She and a group of friends went to a hotpot restaurant in Chinatown called Hai Di Lao. The woman invited Mr Zou, who she knew as Pakho, to come along. She said that afterwards the group went and drank Jack Daniel's whiskey at a nearby restaurant for four or five hours.At the end of the evening she remembered vomiting on a street nearby.
'How could you?'
She remembered nothing after that until she woke up to find Mr Zou having sex with her, the court heard. The woman said she told him "no" but then lapsed into unconsciousness. She left his student flat at 07:00 the next morning, jurors were told.Later she messaged him on WeChat, a Chinese online platform, the court heard."I questioned him 'how could you do that to me?'", she told the police."And he answered 'I thought you were conscious. I thought you knew what you were doing'.She added: "But I am quite sure that at that time I did not allow him to have sex with me because I was feeling miserable. I was drunk."
The alleged victim said she was still very drunk when she left the next morning.She said that months later she saw that another Chinese woman had posted a message on the social media app Red Book with a picture of Mr Zou saying he had had sex with her when she was drunk. The other woman had posted that he was a PhD student who wore a green Rolex watch. The alleged victim contacted this woman, who then put her in touch with the police.
Zhenhao Zou is standing trial charged with raping two women. Two of them have been identified by the police, but the identity of the other eight alleged victims is unknown.In addition to the multiple rape charges, Mr Zou also denies eight counts of possessing a controlled drug with intent to supply.
The trial continues.