UCL student denies multiple charges of rape, voyeurism, and drug distribution

A UCL student has been accused of drugging and raping 10 women, and faces 35 charges for crimes said to have taken place between September 2019 and May 2023.

Zhenhao Zou is facing the Inner London Crown Court and is denying all the 35 charges he faces.

The 27-year-old PhD student’s charges include 11 counts of rape, three counts of voyeurism, 12 of possession of extreme pornography, one of false imprisonment, and eight of possession with intent to supply.

Litigator Catherine Farrelly KC outlined the prosecution’s case, saying that Mr Zou was a “persistent sexual predator, a voyeur, and a rapist.” Jurors have been told that Mr Zou will argue the sexual interactions were consensual.

He kept [the videos] for his own private sexual gratification so that he could watch, at his leisure, his rapes of these women

Litigator Catherine Farrelly KC

The court was informed that police have identified two of the 10 alleged victims, and it is claimed that of the 10 women, there are video recordings related to nine of them. Regarding the recordings, Ms Farrelly added to her case: “He kept [the videos] for his own private sexual gratification so that he could watch, at his leisure, his rapes of these women, who he had rendered often unconscious and totally vulnerable to his will.”

The jury has also been told that there were two other recordings in which the male involved cannot be identified.

Mr Zou is also being charged with eight counts of possession with intent to supply, where the alleged substances involved are MDMA, ketamine, butanediol, and alprazolam. He denies possessing MDMA and ketamine and claims the butanediol and alprazolam were for personal use.

Ms Farrelly explained to the jury how 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.

The prosecutor added: “At one point in the recording, she can be heard screaming repeatedly and she appears to try and get up from the bed on several occasions and the defendant pushes her back down each and every time.”

When he was initially arrested, Mr Zou said that upon agreement with the women involved, he would film his sexual interactions and that he has never performed non-consensual sexual acts.