Woman says Chinese student encouraged her to drink before alleged rape – court

A woman alleged she was raped by a Chinese PhD student after he encouraged her to drink more, a trial has heard.

Zhenhao Zou, 27, is accused of drugging and raping 10 women in total, including three in London and seven in China.

Jurors at Inner London Crown Court were told on Tuesday that Metropolitan Police officers were called on May 21 2023 to reports of a serious sexual assault.

Pc Tijani said the alleged victim told officers she had gone out for drinks “with some man who encouraged her to drink more” a few days earlier after attending a party at a friend’s house.

In a witness statement read out by the prosecution, the officer added: “However, after a while, she felt uncomfortable and wanted to come back, but he would not let her come back.”

The police officer, whose first name was not recorded by the court, said the alleged victim explained “she was very intoxicated and the suspect kept giving her more alcohol during the night”.

In body-worn footage played to the court, the alleged victim is heard telling officers during their visit to her London address: “He always let me drink more so that I feel the drink more. So I want to come back and he wouldn’t let me come back.

“He didn’t let me back home.”

The woman, whose native language is Mandarin, added: “He raped me.”

Pc Tijani, who attended the call alongside Pc Digby and Pc Weller, said in her witness statement that the woman “appeared confused” and was “difficult to understand due to the language barrier”.

The police officers asked the alleged victim whether she had been drinking at the time of their visit to her address after there was confusion about her account.

In a witness statement read out to jurors, Pc Emily Nice said the alleged victim subsequently disclosed to police that a “girl had approached her and said she had experienced a similar incident”.

The alleged victim was then told in February 2024 that police had found photos on a device belonging to Zou during their investigation that suggested she had been sexually assaulted, jurors heard.

The woman told officers in March 2024 that she had posted accounts of her experience on the Chinese social media sites Little Red Book and WeChat.

Jurors were told that police seized multiple 500ml bottles of butanediol, Xanax tablets, Viagra, and a “folded 10 yuan note containing a white crystalline powder” from Zou’s flat during searches in January and February of last year.

Subsequent analysis by police revealed bags of powder found in the flat contained ketamine and MDMA, the trial heard.

As part of agreed facts, jurors were told, a Huawei mobile phone, a Lenovo hard drive, a laptop, as well as numerous cameras and USB sticks were also seized from the 39th-floor Elephant and Castle flat.

Toxicologist John Slaughter told the court that butanediol is converted into GHB in the body if swallowed.

Mr Slaughter added that high doses of GHB have the capability to lead to an “intoxicating, stupefying” effect, rendering someone unconscious and causing loss of memory.

Images were also found on Zou’s phone from the Potato messenger app of the drug sevoflurane with “suitable for full body anaesthetisation” written on its packaging, as well as of the tranquiliser triazolam, jurors heard.

Prosecutors say Zou filmed nine of the alleged victims, footage of which has been played in court.

The student moved to Belfast in 2017 to study at Queen’s University before heading to London in 2019 to do a master’s degree and then a PhD at UCL.

Zou denies 11 counts of rape as well as three counts of voyeurism, 12 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and eight of possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply.

He will argue that the sexual interactions were consensual, that drugs and alcohol were consumed by the women voluntarily, and that some of the footage captured involved role playing, jurors were told.

The trial continues.