A “persistent sexual predator” has been found guilty of drugging and raping 10 women before covertly filming them in a string of sex attacks.

Zhenhao Zou, 27, had presented himself as a “smart and charming young man”, but had in fact been preying on vulnerable women, often while they were semi-unconscious, and keeping the twisted videos as “souvenirs”.

The student, who moved to Belfast in 2017 to study at Queen’s University before coming to London in 2019 to do a master’s degree and then a PhD at UCL, denied all 35 of the charges.

He has been convicted of raping three of the women between September 2019 and May 2023, while he was studying in London, while the other seven victims were assaulted in China.

Only two of the victims shown in his videos have been identified by the police, while the others remain unidentified.

He first came to the attention of the Met Police in May 2023, when one of the identified women claimed that he had raped her after not allowing her to leave his flat in Elephant and Castle, south-east London.

She did not pursue the allegation at that point but later, in February 2024, investigators found a social media post in which the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave her account of what had happened.

When contacted by detectives, the alleged victim told them that on 18 May 2023 Zou invited her to his friend’s flat for a drink, and then back to his apartment.

They were drinking wine together but she began to find him “odd and boring” and wanted to leave, but he would not let her go, the court heard.

She said she was crying on the floor, and when she tried to run away he dragged her back by her clothes, before pushing her to drink a big glass of vodka and then raping her while she was unconscious.

Police found video footage of the alleged attack and graphic photographs of the alleged victim in Zou’s possession upon his arrest.

The second victim who has been identified by police, got in contact with the first woman in response to social media posts she had made on LittleRedBook and WeChat giving her account of what had happened.

She had consensual sex with Zou on one occasion in September 2021 then, the following month after a dinner with friends, she found herself alone with him in the street in Chinatown and remembers vomiting.

Her next memory is Zou allegedly raping her at his flat. She told police that she had asked him to stop before she lost consciousness.

It is claimed that Zou had video recordings of him raping a number of other women while they were unconscious and unable to consent.

Footage shows two of them telling him to stop as they struggle to stay awake, it is claimed, with the student telling one of them: “The sound insulation here is very good.”

In text message exchanges between him and the first identified victim in the days after the rape, she told him “you are so disgusting” and “you should feel guilty for what you did”.

Giving evidence, Zou told jurors that his “favourite” pornography involved sleeping women, and that he watched “specialist timestop” more than any other genres.

Asked by his lawyer Mark Cotter KC why that particular genre appealed to him, Zou said: “I like it because the girl appears to be still and quiet when they are having sex.”

Mr Cotter then asked Zou: “What about being asleep?”

The student replied: “Yes, that’s my favourite type. But I could not find that.”

He also said that he came into contact with cocaine, ecstasy tablets and ketamine from parties and going to nightclubs in London, and that he had bought xanax after meeting a drug dealer at a party because he suffered from insomnia.

Zou said he was born in Guangdong Province in China to a father who works in a state-owned enterprise and a mother who works as a teacher.

Between March 2020 and July 2021 he returned to China due to the Covid pandemic, and said he was online for “a lot of time” during the pandemic, adding “sometimes, a whole day”.

Zou said he had undertaken cosmetic operations in China including a hair transplant and operations on his eyelids, adding that he often wore makeup.

He denied 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.

This is a breaking news story, more follows…