Student denies drugging and raping 10 women

Zhenhao Zou, a PhD student, is accused of carrying out the offences between 2019 and 2024

A PhD student who was studying in the UK appears to be "a smart and charming young man" but is in fact "a persistent sexual predator, a voyeur and a rapist", a jury has been told.

Zhenhao Zou, a Chinese national, is on trial at Inner London Crown Court accused of drugging and raping 10 women.

The substances alleged to be involved in the offences are MDMA, butanediol, ketamine and alprazolam, which is also known under the brand name Xanax.

The 27-year-old denies all 35 charges he faces including 11 counts of rape, three counts of voyeurism, 12 of possession of extreme pornography, one of false imprisonment and eight of possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply.

The court heard Mr Zou, from Elephant and Castle in south London, first came to the UK from China in September 2017 to study at Queen's University in Belfast and also studied for a master's degree at University College London from 2019 through to 2021 before beginning a PhD at the same university.

Outlining the prosecution's case, Catherine Farrelly KC said the accused was "a persistent sexual predator; a voyeur and a rapist".

"To the outside world, he undoubtedly presents as a smart and charming young man," Ms Farrelly told the court.

"The prosecution's 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 those drinks or drugs, he would then rape them."

Catherine Farrelly KC told jurors several recordings would be shown during the trial - which she described as "the defendant's souvenirs of many rapes"

Ms Farrelly explained to the jury several recordings would be shown during the trial, which the prosecution alleges were "the defendant's souvenirs of many rapes that he had committed; items that he kept for his own private sexual gratification so that he could watch, at his leisure, his rapes of these women who he had rendered unconscious and totally vulnerable to his will".

She added "most of the rapes in this case were only discovered by police after they had attended the defendant's home address, searched it, seized various items from it and then examined them".

Police have identified two of the alleged victims but not the remaining eight, the court was told.

It is claimed that there are video recordings relating to nine of the 10 alleged rape victims, for which Mr Zou is charged with possessing extreme pornographic images. The jury heard there were also two other recordings in which the male involved cannot be identified.

Mr Zou denies all 35 charges

Ms Farrelly told the jury the first woman to make allegations against Mr Zou contacted police in May 2023 to claim he had raped her after not allowing her to leave his flat.

She did not pursue the allegation at that point but later in February 2024 investigators found a social media post in which the woman gave her account of what had happened, jurors were told.

Ms Farrelly told the court that when contacted by detectives, the woman said they had been drinking wine together at his flat in May 2023 and the woman "began to find the defendant odd".

She tried to leave but Mr Zou told a friend who popped in that she was too drunk to walk and he could not let her go, the court heard.

When the woman tried to run out of the flat, he dragged her back by her clothes and later pressured her to drink a big glass of vodka, jurors were told. The woman claims he raped her while she was unconscious.

The second woman, who was identified by police, got in contact with the first woman in response to the social media posts.

The court was told she had consensual sex with Mr Zou on one occasion in September 2021.

The following month, after dinner with friends, she was alone with him on a street in Chinatown and remembers vomiting, the court heard.

Her next memory was of Mr Zou raping her at his flat, jurors heard, and that she told police she had asked him to stop before she lost consciousness.

The trial continues.