Chinese post-grad student gets life for rape spree

RTHK

8 hours ago

Chinese post-grad student gets life for rape spree
Zou Zhenhao is suspected to have targeted 50 more women on top of the 10 he had raped in the UK and China. File photo: Reuters
A Chinese post-graduate student convicted of drugging and raping 10 women in the UK and China and suspected of having attacked more has been jailed for life by a London court.
Police in London say they have evidence to suggest Zou Zhenhao might have targeted more than 50 other women.
Described in court as "calculated and predatory", Zou, 28, targeted young Chinese women whom he invited to his London flat for drinks or to study before drugging and attacking them.
He filmed nine of the rapes with hidden or handheld cameras, but only three of the 10 victims have ever been identified.
Sentencing him at Inner London Crown Court, Judge Rosina Cottage said there was "no doubt that you planned and executed a campaign of rape" that had caused "devastating and long term effects".
To the world he appeared "well to do, ambitious and charming" but this was a mask hiding a "sexual predator", she said.
He treated his victims "callously" as "sex toys" for his own gratification, and his desire to assert "power and control over women" meant that he would be a "risk for an indefinite period", she added.
Zou, wearing a dark suit and glasses, listened impassively in the dock to the sentence via a translator.
He will serve a minimum of 22 years in jail, after accounting for time already spent in custody.
The former engineering student at University College London was found guilty by a jury in March of 28 offences including 11 counts of rape – with two of the counts relating to one woman – three counts of voyeurism and one of false imprisonment.
He was found guilty of raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2023.
He was also convicted of three counts of possessing butanediol – an industrial solvent – with intent to commit a sexual offence and 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image.
Victims told the sentencing hearing in impact statements of the psychological damage they suffered including nightmares, self harm and a sense of despair and isolation.
One recalled "wandering like a trapped animal trying to find an exit" after she was attacked.
"What happened that night is etched into my soul forever," she said. (AFP)