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Woman says student predator Zhenhao Zou raped her hours before second attack

Wanging Chang and Larissa KennelliBBC Global China Unit & BBC News Investigations

The BBC treats the image of Zhenhao Zou that displays the Mugshot police. He looks directly to the camera in a dangerous expression. It has a straight dark hair with a long margin and wears a white T -shirt and a black shirt.BBC

Zhenhao Zou was sentenced to a minimum of 24 years in prison in June

Two women who reported her anesthesia and raped her by the heavy sexual crime perpetrators of Zhenhao Zou that they were attacked within 24 hours of each other, and they created BBC.

The first woman told us that she was raped that she was shocked to get to know the second attack and since then she felt guilty that she did not report her rape sooner.

The investigators of the Metropolitan police who investigated Zu initially asked whether the two women might be the same person, because the two attacks seemed identical and occurred in such a short time period.

This timing showed that Zu was confident, a source familiar with the investigation said to the BBC World Service. “He was escaped, so he wanted to do it more and more,” they said.

Warning: This story contains a description of sexual violence

Zu was sentenced to a minimum of 24 years in prison in June.

The Chinese citizen was convicted of his anesthesia and the rape of 10 women – three in the United Kingdom and seven in China – between September 2019 and May 2023. It seems that all the victims were Chinese.

But after his trial, the investigators said – after they described Zu as one of the “most abundant predators” in the United Kingdom – they were afraid that he may have attacked 50 other women.

Since the trial of Zu, 24 women in the United Kingdom and China have advanced, including the victims of these two attacks.

The graphic copy for the exchange of WeChat between Rachel and her friend, entitled

The first woman, which we call Rachel, says she met drinks in late October 2022. He led her to the water villa in the village of Zhupingsha, near the Chinese city of Dongguan, where she gave her whiskey cocktail that he left dizzy that she says that she is barely moving. After lying the top floor to recover, she says he raped her.

The records of the phone and shared messages with the BBC revealed that Rachel tried to call a friend to help after that, but Zu grabbed her phone and spoke with the friend himself.

Zo did not return Rachel’s phone until the next afternoon. In a series of frantic messages on the Chinese WeChat app, Rachel told her friend that she is still in Zou’s house and asked her why she could not come and get her.

Her friend explained that she heard Rachel crying to help on the phone, but Zu will not reveal his address.

“My friend was afraid that if she continued to ask, he will go to the extreme and harm me,” Rachel later told the BBC. She says that Zu ended up dropping her home before 14:00. She said, “The man treated me with a game.”

Rachel said that she had not reported her rape of the police in China because she was afraid that she had not had enough evidence and was concerned about the discovery of people.

We do not know exactly what was in the cocktail that Rachel drank, but when the UK police stormed the Zu apartment in London, they found a substance that turns into GHB rape in the body.

This substance is a tight drug in the UK, but it can be easily purchased without a prescription in China to treat insomnia, as it costs less than $ 3 (2.22 pounds) per 500 ml.

The graphic copies of the weChat exchange between Zu and a friend, entitled

Zo also has repeatedly searched over the Internet for information about a banned sleep medicine in the UK but is available at the prescription in China, according to the evidence that appears in his trial.

A screenshot of the WeChat messages circulating among their former colleagues in Zu, seen by the BBC, shows that Zu began searching for the described sleep pills in China in January 2020, and asked a friend there if anyone knew who he described as who could “buy directly”.

The second victim, who was attacked on the same day, was referred to on October 2022 in the name of females D, because her identity was not known to the UK police at the time of the trial of Zu. However, he was convicted of raping her using video evidence from his devices. I contacted the UK police shortly after his trial ended in March 2025, after learning about his conviction.

Through the documents offered in his trial, we have proven that Zhou met a female D for only a few hours from Rachel’s leadership to the home. He nurtured her, raped her, and photographed the attack. In a statement of the victim’s influence, which was read in the judgment issued in Zou in June, the female D said that she could not escape until 04:00 the next day.

Rachel – The first victim of late October 2022 – She also decided to report her experiences to MET Police in March 2025. With the help of an independent translator, she made an unknown statement via e -mail.

In response to her report, a police officer asked for more information about Rachel’s identity, saying that “we seemed to have a contact with this person” and that the account seemed “largely identical to one we have already we have from this time period.”

Rachel said she made it clear that she had not reported the case of the Chinese or British police.

The BBC has verified that the first letters that MET participate in correspondence to verify Rachel’s identity with her, in fact belonging to female D.

Zou studied at Queens University in Belfast from 2017, before heading to London in 2019 to obtain a master’s degree and then doctorate in UCL.

Met police are still inviting victims to apply by calling Survivors@met.police.uk. He told us that the Zou’s investigation is continuing, including contact with the coronary prosecution service on potential charges.

“The size of the violation – which spanned two continents – makes it one of the most dangerous sexual crimes that MET brought to justice,” said Det Chh Insps Tariq Farooki.

In a statement of the victim’s effect, a female D said that she was haunted by nightmares after the attack and “could not be alone after darkness.”

Rachel says she feels that if she calls the police the next day, the female may not become a victim. “I know everyone will say this is his mistake, not mine, but I still feel sorry.”

Graphic copies of the weChat exchange between Zou and a friend, entitled:

Since his conviction, his former friends in China in China have revealed how they were requested for advice on gathering spy cameras that may have helped him maintain his crime record – including before the UK police met him for the first time.

It seems that a series of messages, shared with the British Broadcasting Corporation, appears to appear asking from one friend for advice on building mini cameras on December 21, 2023. The documents submitted to the court during the Zou’s experimental presentation that he searched online for a “hidden camera” and “electrical warning camera” on the same day and conducted purchases on Ebay of Mortiollance Pearched.

Zu sent the same friend again on January 17, 2024.

He was arrested by the police after seven days.

While searching his apartment in London, the police later found a spy camera in a box next to a memory card containing video evidence of his rape.

  • Help and support details are available with sexual violence in BBC Line

If you have information about this story you want to share with us, please call.

You can talk to Wanqing.zhang@bc.co.uk in Chinese or English – please include contact details if you are ready to talk to her.

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2025-08-27 23:01:00

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