Serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, ex-QUB student: PSNI appealing for Northern Ireland victims of possibly UK's worst serial rapist
The PSNI is appealing for potential victims of possibly the UK's worst serial rapist to come forward and tell of their experiences.
Twenty-three more women have come forward to the police with allegations against serial rapist Zhenhao Zou - a Chinese PhD student who studied at Queen's University Belfast from 2017-2019 before moving back to China due to Covid.
In September 2019 he moved to London to do a master’s degree, returning to China periodically.
He was found guilty in London last month of drugging and raping 10 women across two continents, making him potentially one of the worst sexual predators in the UK.
Police said they had video evidence of abuse, filmed by Zou himself, of potentially 50 more victims.
This week the London Metropolitan Police Service issued a renewed public appeal to encourage potential victims to come forward.
The PSNI are supporting this, appealing to current or former Northern Ireland residents who may have concerns about to come forward.
Police feel there are potentially more victims out there who have not yet come forward.
Detective Chief Inspector Stephanie Finlay of the PSNI’s Public Protection Branch said: “To date we have not received any reports of potential offences committed in Northern Ireland and so we are again appealing for information.
“We have concerns that many of the victims do not know they are victims. Zou’s pattern of offending involved him meeting women socially, or through social media, then luring them back to his flat where he would ply them with drink laced with drugs and sexually assault them when they lost consciousness.
“We want to appeal to anybody who met him or in any way was alone with him, where somebody may have been in his accommodation or had an encounter with him that left them feeling uneasy or like something may have happened that they did not consent to.
“Please come forward and report. We will treat you with sensitivity and respect.
"Do not suffer in silence if you have been victimised by this man, we are only interested in ensuring you get the help and support you need, in finding out what may have happened to you and aiding the Met in getting you the justice you deserve.
“We remain in close dialogue with the Met who lead on this investigation and that will continue.”
Last month a consultant forensic psychologist told the News Letter it was plausible that he may have been offending while living in Belfast.
Dr Vicky Thakordas-Desai noted he downloaded an instruction guide on how to drug and rape women in China in November 2020 - after he had left NI.
But she said his offending mindset could have been “bubbling away in the background” while he was in Belfast. “This could have manifested itself in certain other types of offending, such as voyeurism - using spy cameras in student accomodation for example - or taking items that belonged to other females and extreme use of pornography,” she said.
She is interested to know whether he was tutoring women in Belfast and whether sexual assault support services in Belfast might have any relevant records from the time.
It would also be important to interview any of his close associates in Belfast and all female Chinese students at QUB at the time, she added.
Victims can contact the Metropolitan Police Service via [email protected] or the website https://mipp.police.uk/operation/01MPS25X38-PO1
A Simplified Chinese website is also available: https://mipp.police.uk/operation/01MPS25X38-PO2