May the world be peaceful, protect yourself
(BBC) Two women who reported being drugged and raped by repeat offender Zou Zhenhao told the BBC that their attacks occurred within 24 hours of each other.
Metropolitan Police detectives initially investigating Zou's crimes suspected the two women might be the same person because the attacks sounded identical and occurred so close in time.
A source familiar with the investigation told BBC World News that the timing suggested Zou was confident. "He felt he could get away with it, so he struck more and more frequently."
Warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual violence.
In June, Zou Zhenhao was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 24 years.
The Chinese national was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women—three in the UK and seven in China—between September 2019 and May 2023. All of the victims appeared to be Chinese.
But after the trial, detectives—who described Zou Zhenhao as one of Britain's "most rampant predators"—expressed concern that he may have attacked an additional 50 women.
Since Zou Zhenhao's trial, a total of 24 women in the UK and China have come forward, including the victims of both attacks.
The first woman, whom we'll call "Rachel," said she met Zou Zhenhao for drinks in late October 2022. He drove her to his waterfront villa in Zhupingsha Village, near Dongguan, China, where he made her a whiskey cocktail that left her so dizzy she said she could barely move. She said he raped her after she went upstairs to lie down and rest.
Phone records and messages shared with the BBC show that Rachel tried to call a friend for help afterward, but Zou Zhenhao snatched the phone from her and spoke to the friend himself.
Zou Zhenhao didn't return the phone to Rachel until the following afternoon. In a series of frantic messages on WeChat, Rachel told her friend she was still at Zou Zhenhao's house and asked why he hadn't come to pick her up.
The friend explained that she heard Rachel calling for help on the phone, but Zou Zhenhao refused to disclose the address.
"My friend was worried that if she continued to question him, he would go to extremes and hurt me," Rachel later told the BBC. She said Zou Zhenhao ultimately sent her home shortly before 2 p.m. "He treated me like a toy," she said.
Rachel said she did not report the rape to the Chinese police because she worried about insufficient evidence and feared discovery.
We don't know what else was in Rachel's cocktail, but when British police searched Zou Zhenhao's London apartment, they found a substance called butanediol, which converts to the date rape drug GHB in the body.
Butanediol is a controlled substance in the UK, but the BBC found that in China, it can be easily purchased without a prescription to treat insomnia, for as little as $3 (£2.22) per 500ml bottle.
On January 4, 2020, at 8:13 p.m., Zou Zhenhao asked a friend on WeChat if he could get sleeping pills. The friend said he couldn't give them to him; he would have to go to a clinic to get them, and he wasn't sure if regular pharmacies sold them. At 8:30 PM, Zou Zhenhao said it seemed difficult to obtain, and he wondered if his friends knew anyone who had the drug so he could buy it directly from them.
According to evidence presented at the trial, Zou Zhenhao also repeatedly searched online for information about triazolam, a drug banned in the UK but available with a prescription in China.
Screenshots of WeChat messages between Zou Zhenhao and classmates, viewed by the BBC, show that in January 2020, Zou Zhenhao began researching prescription sleeping pills in China, asking a friend there if they knew someone with a prescription from whom he could "buy" directly.
The second victim, attacked on the same day in October 2022, is referred to as Ms. D because her identity was unknown to British police at the time. However, he was convicted of raping her, based on evidence from a video on his device. She contacted British police shortly after Zou Zhenhao's trial in March 2025, at which point she learned of his conviction.
Documents presented at the trial established that Zou Zhenhao had been dating Ms. D just hours after dropping Rachel off at his home. He drugged and raped her, filming the attack. In Ms. D's victim impact statement, read out at Zou Zhenhao's sentencing in June, she said she was unable to escape until 4 a.m. the following day.
Rachel, the first victim, also decided to report her ordeal to the Metropolitan Police in March 2025. With the help of an independent translator, she submitted an anonymous statement via email.
In response to her report, police requested more information about Rachel's identity, stating that "it appears we may have had contact with this individual" and that the story sounded "very similar to one we already had during this period."
Rachel clarified that she had never reported the case to either Chinese or British police.
The BBC verified that the initials shared by the Metropolitan Police in a letter verifying Rachel's identity actually belonged to Ms. D.
Zou Zhenhao studied at Queen's University Belfast in 2017 before moving to London in 2019 to pursue a master's degree and subsequently a doctorate at University College London.
The Metropolitan Police are still appealing for victims to come forward and told us their investigation into Zou Zhenhao is ongoing, including discussions with the Crown Prosecutor regarding possible further charges.
Metropolitan Police Detective Sergeant Tariq Farooqi said: "The scale of his crimes – spanning two continents – makes him one of the most dangerous sex offenders the Met has ever brought to justice."
In her victim impact statement, Ms. D said she was plagued by nightmares after the attack and "couldn't be alone after dark."
Rachel said she felt that if she had reported the attack to the police the next day, Ms. D might not have become a victim. "I know everyone will say it was his fault, not mine, but I still feel sorry."
On December 21, 2023, at 11:02 PM, Zou Zhenhao's WeChat conversation with a friend indicated that he wanted to install a camera on a small electronic device. The friend suggested he buy a USB camera, which only had four pins for connection. At 4:08 PM on January 17, 2024, the friend asked Zou Zhenhao if he planned to separate the lens and chip. Zou Zhenhao said he wanted such a thing and attached a screenshot of a hidden camera module taken from the Chinese shopping platform Taobao.
Since Zou Zhenhao's conviction, his former classmates in China have revealed how he sought advice from them on assembling a hidden camera that could help him record his crimes—including shortly before British police first arrested him.
A series of messages shared with the BBC appear to show that on December 21, 2023, Zou Zhenhao asked a friend for advice on building a miniature camera. Documents submitted to the court during his trial show that he searched online for "hidden camera" and "electronic alarm clock camera" that same day and purchased surveillance equipment on eBay.
On January 17, 2024, Zou Zhenhao messaged the same friend again.
He was arrested seven days later.
During a search of his London apartment, police later found a hidden camera hidden in a box, next to a memory card containing video evidence of his rape.
