A Chinese Ph.D. student is sentenced to at least 24 years in prison for raping multiple women
LONDON — A British judge on Thursday sentenced a Chinese Ph.D. student to a minimum of 24 years in prison for drugging and raping 10 women in England and China.
Zhenhao Zou, 28, was convicted of the attacks, which took place between 2019 and 2023, during a four-week trial earlier this year at Inner London Crown Court.
Judge Rosina Cottage on Thursday described Zou as 'very bright young man' who used a manipulative 'charming mask' to hide that he is a 'sexual predator.'
Zou was studying for a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at University College London in 2023 when the first woman came forward to allege that he had raped her. As part of the investigation, police seized Zou's phone, on which they found videos of him raping unconscious women. A search of his apartment in south London turned up sedatives and recording equipment.
The investigation into Zou's crimes continues, and at least 24 women have come forward with new allegations as a result of the publicity surrounding his trial, London's Metropolitan Police Service said. Taken together, the cases would make him one of the worst sex offenders in U.K. history.
Zou, who also used the name Pakho online, befriended fellow students of Chinese heritage on dating apps and WeChat, before inviting them for drinks and drugging them at his apartments in London or an unknown location in China.
Using hidden or handheld cameras, Zou filmed nine of the attacks as 'souvenirs,' and he kept a 'trophy box' of his victims' belongings, according to evidence presented at trial.
Zou, who claimed the encounters were consensual, was also convicted of three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possessing an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and three of possessing a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence.
He was handed a life sentence and must serve a minimum of 24 years in prison.
Prosecutor Saira Pike praised the victims who came forward to report Zou's 'horrific crimes.'
'They have been incredibly strong and brave,' Pike said. 'There is no doubt that their evidence helped us to secure his conviction, and the life sentence handed to him today.'
Kirka writes for the Associated Press.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox Sports
2 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Browns rookie QB Shedeur Sanders ticketed for speeding twice in June
Associated Press STRONGSVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders has been ticketed for speeding twice this month in Ohio. Sanders was accused of driving a Dodge TRX pickup truck 101 mph (163 kilometers per hour) on a suburban Cleveland interstate earlier this week. The Strongsville Police Department stopped Sanders at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday in a 60 mph (97 kilometers per hour) zone on Interstate 71 near the Ohio Turnpike, according to a report provided to local media. Sanders, 23, could pay a $250 fine to waive the fourth-degree misdemeanor case, according to police. But it wasn't the first time he'd been pulled over for allegedly speeding since joining the Browns. That ticket came after he was stopped by the Ohio State Patrol on June 5 in Brunswick Hills, Ohio. Sanders was pulled over for going 91 mph (147 kilometers per hour) in a 65 mph (105 kilometer) zone, Ohio State Patrol told WKBN-TV. According to Medina Municipal Court records, Sanders failed to appear for an arraignment for that ticket on Monday and owes $269 in court costs. Browns spokesman Peter John- Baptiste told Thursday that: 'he is taking care of the tickets.' Sanders, the son of Hall of Fame player Deion Sanders, was drafted in the fifth round (144th overall) of the NFL draft this spring, even though many projections had him going in the first round. He played under his father at the University of Colorado. Sanders is competing against three other quarterbacks with the Browns. They wrapped up minicamp last week and will open training camp in late July. ___ AP NFL: recommended in this topic
Boston Globe
4 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Man charged with killing girlfriend, leaving her body at Logan Airport parking lot, fires his lawyer
Judge Mary K. Ames granted Shapiro's request to withdraw and set an Aug. 21 hearing for the appearance of new counsel. Kangethe, 42, Kangethe remains held without bail. Advertisement Kevin Adam Kinyanjui Kangethe appears at the Milimani law court in Nairobi, Kenya, on Feb. 14, 2024. Brian Inganga/Associated Press During Kangethe's arraignment last year, Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee said that Mbitu lived in Whitman and was last seen at about 11 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2023, leaving a longterm care facility in Halifax, where she worked as a nurse. Lee said Kangethe took a Lyft ride to the facility and they left in his Toyota Venza that she had been driving. 'Whether by coercion or not,' Kangethe drove Mbitu from her workplace, Lee said. Sometime between leaving Halifax and arriving at his home in Lowell, Kangethe 'brutally attacked' Mbitu with a knife, delivering '10 wounds just to her face and neck alone,' Lee said. Advertisement Authorities determined that Kangethe parked the car at his home with her body inside and was seen on video driving at different locations in Lowell and several neighboring towns, Lee said. 'Failing to find a place to dispose of her, Mr. Kangethe discarded her cellphone instead in a dumpster in Chelsea just before driving to Logan Airport,' Lee said. On Oct. 31, 2023, Kangethe twice answered calls from Mbitu's friends and coworkers, who were frantically trying to find out why she never showed up for work that morning, Lee said. On both occasions, Kangethe would not put Mbitu on the line and said she had sustained an injury. Kangethe drove to Logan, where he parked the car and left her body facedown in the front seat, with the seat reclined and her body covered with bags and other items, Lee said. Kangethe then boarded a flight to Nairobi, Lee said. 'Everything about Mr. Kangethe's flight from the United States suggests that he intended it to be permanent,' Lee said. 'He left with a one-way ticket.' Kangethe was After the arraignment, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden described Mbitu as a caregiver and nurse who was 'beloved by every patient that she served' and 'a beautiful soul and a wonderful daughter and a loving sister.' His words were echoed by Ann Mbitu, the victim's sister, whose statement was read outside court by a relative. Advertisement 'When I lost my sister, I lost a personal friend, a confidante, and the only person I knew I could speak to,' the sister said. 'We will continue to fight ... until this coward is locked up and never sees the light again or gets to hurt another family and take their loved one away from them.' Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report. Travis Andersen can be reached at
Boston Globe
5 hours ago
- Boston Globe
After Karen Read was acquitted of killing her boyfriend, a look at the key evidence presented in her successful defense
But her lawyers said Here's a look at several key issues that may have cast doubt about the government's case in the eyes of jurors. Advertisement Brian Higgins's texts, video footage, statements Brian Higgins testifies during the trial of Karen Read on May 24, 2024. Charles Krupa/Associated Press Throughout the retrial, Read's lawyers focused on ATF agent Brian Higgins, who attended the afterparty at the Canton home and was a key figure in the first trial. He did not testify at the retrial, but Read's defense team questioned other witnesses in an effort to show he may have had a motive to harm O'Keefe. Jurors saw Advertisement The jury also learned that State Police never directly searched Higgins's phone; instead, he provided the text messages himself to investigators, according to State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik, who testified that he felt the texts showed Read was pursuing Higgins romantically. Jurors also viewed surveillance footage from the Waterfall, the second bar the group went to before the afterparty, where O'Keefe kisses Read on the forehead in view of Higgins, who's later seen gesturing aggressively towards O'Keefe as Albert's brother grabs his forearm to restrain him. Jurors also viewed In that footage, Higgins is seen briefly ducking into dispatch and then exiting the station on his phone before he retrieves an empty duffel bag from another vehicle in the parking lot. He also retrieves a garden hoe from another area of the lot. (Higgins testified at the first trial that he went to the police station to move cars due to the snowstorm.) Read attorney Alan Jackson also Higggins also testified during the first trial that he disposed of his phone a few months after O'Keefe's death on a Cape Cod military base after a target of one of his ATF probes called him and said his girlfriend had gotten the number off the Internet. Advertisement Jennifer McCabe's Google search, statements, texts Jennifer McCabe continues her cross-examination testimony during the Karen Read murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court on April 30, 2025. Greg Derr/Associated Press Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert's sister-in-law, But on cross-examination, she was confronted with a Google search on her phone timestamped 2:27 a.m., five minutes after the alleged butt dials between Higgins and Brian Albert, that said 'hos [sic] long to die in cold.' McCabe testified that she actually made that search hours later at the crime scene at Read's request, and government forensic experts The government experts also said the deletion of the search appeared to have been done automatically, rather than manually by the user. The defense also pressed McCabe about her initial evasiveness when the FBI first approached her outside her home to discuss the case in April 2023. The jurors were told only that the agents were from an unspecified law enforcement agency, as they were barred from knowing the Justice Department had convened a separate federal grand jury investigation into the state authorities' handling of O'Keefe's death. Advertisement The authorities later called her when she was in her house and identified themselves as law enforcement, she said. McCabe said she told the investigators she would speak with them but she needed about 10 minutes to get ready. Jackson asked McCabe if she suspended that interview at one point because she didn't feel comfortable, and she said, 'correct.' She said she had also called her husband who returned home, and that she had also called Roberts before the interview began. Omissions in the investigation Jurors learned that authorities, while they questioned some witnesses inside the Canton home on the morning of O'Keefe's death, never conducted a search of the premises. In addition, jurors were told that investigators never reviewed Ring video footage from the front porch of a Canton police official who lived diagonally across the street from Brian Albert. Paul Gallagher, a retired Canton police lieutenant, O'Keefe's injuries Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on John O'Keefe, testifies during the trial of Karen Read on May 15, 2025. Mark Stockwell/AP, Pool Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, the state medical examiner who conducted O'Keefe's autopsy, Scordi-Bello also testified, however, that O'Keefe's manner of death was undetermined, and that she 'did examine his legs and I did not see any evidence of an impact site.' O'Keefe had also sustained a number of linear scratches on his right arm, and a defense expert, Dr. Marie Russell, a veteran emergency room physician in Los Angeles and former Malden police officer, Advertisement A government expert testified that the scratches were consistent with O'Keefe's arm being caught in Read's shattered taillight. But the defense also called another expert, Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, the former chief medical examiner in Rhode Island, who The ARCCA witnesses Expert Daniel Wolfe returns to the stand in the murder retrial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Monday June 9, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool) Pat Greenhouse/Associated Press The defense also called two analysts from the Philadelphia-based crash reconstruction firm ARCCA, who Government experts contradicted that assessment, but the word of the ARCCA analysts, who were initially hired by the Justice Department as part of the federal probe and later retained by the defense, evidently carried weight with jurors. The defense also repeatedly mocked a so-called paint In his closing argument, Jackson likened the 'ridiculous blue paint' test to a 'kindergarten project.' Allegations of vehicle tampering, planting evidence, firing of lead investigato Law enforcement witnesses also testified to recovering a number of taillight shards and a broken drinking glass at the crime scene near O'Keefe's body, Advertisement But jurors learned that many of the pieces on the lawn were discovered days after the initial snowy search, including Jackson asked Bukhenik if he had asked Berkowitz, 'No,' Bukhenik said repeatedly. Canton police quickly recused themselves from the investigation because a detective on the force is Brian Albert's brother. Jurors were also told The jury learned Proctor was Dever Dever, speaking in a deliberate tone, testified that the defense later produced a timeline showing the SUV was brought into the garage after her shift ended that day, 'meaning it is not possible that I saw that.' Dever said it was a 'false memory' that she 'provided in good faith,' which she then 'retracted immediately [upon] being provided evidence that it was not possible.' She also testified that Boston police Commissioner Michael Cox, her boss at her current department, had called her into his office for a one-on-one discussion before her testimony at the retrial. Jackson asked if Cox told her to 'do the right thing,' and Dever said she couldn't recall the direct quote. 'He said nothing with the intent of guiding me one way or the other,' Dever said, adding that Cox 'wanted me to tell the truth up here.' Dever also testified that she must be truthful, adding that 'my entire job revolves around what I say on the stand right now.' Jackson pointedly reminded jurors of that statement at closing, adding, 'you bet it does.' Dighton police officer Nicholas Barros's testimony Jurors also State Police seized the SUV after interviewing Read inside the residence, and Barros told the jury the taillight damage was more severe in a photo of the vehicle inside the Canton police garage than when he saw it in Dighton. 'That taillight is completely smashed out' in the Canton photo, Barros said. 'That middle section was intact when I was there' in Dighton. Prosecutor Hank Brennan highlighted that Barros had testified differently during the first trial. But the officer was adamant. 'I know what I saw,' Barros said. 'And that wasn't it.' Travis Andersen can be reached at
