Serial rapist Zhenhao Zou facing second trial as at least 24 more women come forward

21 June 2025, 22:20

Police and prosecutors are preparing to charge convicted rapist Zhenhao Zou, who is already serving a minimum of 24 years in prison, with a second round of offences.

Chinese PhD student Zhenhao Zou, 28, faces the prospect of at least one more trial after at least 24 women have come forward to British police following his conviction in March.

Detectives and lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service have discussed at least one more trial for the Chinese student as formal statements provided by the women who have come forward could be admissible in a new trial.

One source told the Guardian: “We expect more charges; we expect a second trial.”

Zou was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday and will serve a minimum of 24 years for attacking 10 women in London and China.

He was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim.

Zou offered himself up for chemical castration in the hope of a shorter sentence, the court was told, ahead of the judge handing him a life term.

Pre-sentence reports said his offer was not accepted, in recognition of the harm he caused.

Zou, who came to Britain as a student in 2017, drugged and attacked the women, videoing most of his crimes for his own sexual gratification. The videos were used as evidence and assisted in securing his conviction.

In court, he boasted of having sex with several women a month.

There were a total of 1,270 videos, 1,660 hours of footage, and 58 videos of Zou raping women, most of whom are still to be identified.

The videos show a male, believed to be Zou, carrying out attacks on different women. Some of the videos do not show the victims' faces.

About half are believed to have been recorded in the UK. Detectives are identifying which country attacks took place in by examining videos for visual clues, such as the style of plug socket visible in the room.

Officers also recovered drugs, including those used to immobilise his victims. Detectives at the Metropolitan police are concerned that the effects of drugs used in the attacks could leave victims with no recollection of the assaults.

The drugs can cause a victim to become motionless or barely able to speak, but they can also lead to bouts of euphoria.

Despite Zou's previous conviction for attacking 10 women, prosecutors hope to be able to counter any defence in a new trial, and may argue that the women were consenting.

At Zou's sentencing on Thursday, judge Rosina Cottage KC said he would "groom" his victims over social media, and said: “These women you treated callously as sex toys for your pleasure.”

Officers suspect Zou could be one of the worst sexual offenders in British history.

Victims of have told of being "haunted" by his attacks.

Zou first came to Britain as a student in 2017. He studied initially in Belfast and then in London.

His crimes began to be uncovered in November 2023, when a woman went to police to allege that she had been attacked by Zou.

He was arrested in January 2024 while he was a PhD student in mechanical engineering at University College London.

There was not enough evidence to bring a criminal charge over the woman's claim, but when Zou's phone was seized officers found disturbing videos of him raping unconscious women, and pipettes and sedating drugs in his flat.