warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
The team behind bringing Zhenhao Zou to justice reveal how they solved one of these most complex and challenging investigations the Met has ever had to contend with.
Zou presented himself as a smart and charming young man, but one sexual assault allegation led to the team uncovering something much bigger.
Our thoughts remain with the courageous victim-survivors of Zou’s heinous and predatory crimes.
However, we believe there are still more victim-survivors to be traced and we’re still asking anyone with concerns to come forward.
in november 2023 , our investigation started after a women came forward to report a sexual assault.Zou, a PHD student, studying in London, travelled frequently between china and UK.
when he landed back in the country, our officers immediately arrested him. we seized his personal phone and his passport.
a fast time search of zou’s phone reveiled a vast number of videos taken from his point of view, having sex with unconscious women.
at this point ,we realized we could be dealing with a serial rapist.
we visited his home.
and a more extensive search recovered hidden cameras in his bedroom ,an assortment of drugs, a number of laptops and phones.
and a box which seemingly contained items from his victims.
we secured charges against Zou to remind him safely in custody.
and then got to work on uncovering the true extent og his offending to seek justice for his victims.
the sheer volume of data we recovered and needed to review, was something we’d never dealt with before.it involved collecting over 4, 000 documents,reviewing over 6 terabytes of data,8,7 million WeChat messages, largely in mandarin, and carefully reviewing over 1,200 videos.
the variety of british and chinese hardware, software, and applications put an enormous strain on the digital investigators who had to create bespoke coding just to extract the files.
once extracted , we meticulously reviewed evrery video to document every sexaul assault.the footage was horrific.
it was clear that not only did these women not know they were being filmed,they were sufferinf the effects of drugging and in various states of unconsciousness.
despite being able to identify every victim and offenses occruing in England and China, the footage was so powerful that we were able to work with the CPS to ensure he was charged, even against some unknown victims and brought to justice.
the evidence was compeling enough without victim testimony that rape was being committed.
this case was particularly unique in having an identified suspect but unditentified vicitms.
we were committed to hearing the voices of the victims and compiling accounts to rebut any defence presented by Zou in court to support the compelling video evidence.
part of the challenge in identifying victims was that most conventional investigative techniques were ruled out.
zou targeted chinese women ,and often they did not have a western digital footprint even whilst living in the UK.
we considered publication in the media.however , any widespread publication could potenially influence and prejudice the trial and we did not want to risk an unsafe conviction.
it was paramount we secured justice in the first instance as a priority.
thankfully , we caughta a break where a victim had recorded her allegation on a student forum as a warning to others students.we managed to locate the victim and she bravely provided her account.
we then identified one other victim,meaning we could support both women throughout the process.
we worked with the national crime agency and chinese ministry of justice to ensure we could even facilitate one of these victims to get evidence to the court from china.
this work all contributed to help the victims have their voice heard and deliver truly impactful evidence during the trial. dispelling any suggestion the offences captued on video were consensual.
in 2025,Zou was convicted of raping 10 women he was also convicted of possession of extreme pornography,voyerism, and possession of drugs with tent to commit a criminal offence.
thanks to courageous testimony of victims,the evidence we gathered and the actions we took, this violent and calculated sexual predator is behind bars.
it was truly amazing to see the dedication and commitment of the officers and digital investigators who worked around the clock for months on end to bring Zou to justice.
in june 2025, Zhenhao Zou was sentenced to life for drugging and raping 10 women.