Another 23 women make charges against the doctoral student of the rapist

Twenty -three more women went to the police with accusations against the serial rapist Jenhao Zu, a Chinese student, found guilty of London last month for drugs and rape of 10 women on two continents.

Police said that at the end of his trial they had video evidence filmed by the ZU itself, by potentially 50 more victims – and they were trying to track these women. However, detectives now say that they believe that “Zow’s violation group is far more”.

Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse

Two women who have contacted the police in the last month with new accusations have also talked to the BBC World Service. One said that Zow rapes her in her hometown in China after she shudders, which left her conscious, but cannot speak or move. The other said that Zuu also drugged her – in London – and that she woke up to find him sexually shooting by attacking her.

We also talked to two women whose testimony helped the convicted ZUU – who will be sentenced in June. “If I had talked earlier, there might not be so many casualties after me,” one of them told us.

She and other women say they are fighting the guilt that they now know that ZU has attacked so many women.

One of the women making new allegations that we call Alice told the BBC that Zow had attacked her in London in 2021, but that she felt able to go to the police after his trial last month. “I didn’t know this was something you could report,” the Chinese citizen told us.

She says she first met with Zuu while she is out in London with other friends from Chinese students. The group all added to each other on WeChat, a popular social communication app.

Not long after, a mutual friend invited Alice to drink drinks in Zou’s student accommodation in Bloomsbury.

There were two bottles of spirits on the table, she says, both already open, and semi -empty. She began to share drinks from one of the bottles with her friend – but she says the ZUU only drank from the other.

Alice says her girlfriend usually tolerates alcohol well, but this time she gets drunk very quickly and seems to fall asleep on the floor. Alcohol kicked suddenly for Alice, she says.

“Usually, when you drink too much, you feel good for a while. But that night I just felt extremely dizzy and sleepy right away.”

ZUU convinced her that it would not be safe to take a taxi at home in the condition she was in, she told us and asked her to nap in his bedroom. She says she has agreed, knowing that her friend is still in the apartment.

The next thing she says she remembers is to wake up to take off her pants.

“I stopped it right away,” she says – explaining how she then noticed a torch from a cellphone over her head and realized that to her horror that he was shooting it.

Alice describes that she is trying to leave her bedroom, but is aggressively “pulled out of the door.” ZUU uses such a strong force to try to hold it in the bedroom, she says that “he has to cling to the door frame with two hands.”

Only when she threatened to scream for help, he released him – she told us – with Zuu, then told her not to do a “big deal” of things or to go to the police.

ZUU contacted Alice the next day of WeChat, she says, but he did not mention the previous night. He asked her to dinner, but she says she ignored him and they have never been in a relationship again.

Alice trusted several close friends, but didn’t get things anymore.

“I thought first, you needed evidence. And secondly, something essential had to happen before you could call the police.”

Alice says the next time she saw Zow’s face, she was almost four years later in the media – after he was accused by police.

It is a challenge for foreign nationals to report sex crimes in the UK, says Sarah Yee, a trustee at the Women’s Association of Southeast and East Asia in London.

“It would be discouraged that anyone (from) abroad should be traumatized by rape and then navigate the British legal system and NHS or even get access to the services provided for the victims,” ​​she told us.

They may not understand their rights or what resources are available to them – she says – as he is concerned about the consequences, a negative impact on their studies, the shame brought to themselves and their families, and potential legal challenges.

About a year after Alice says she was attacked, she found that one of her male friends also knew ZUU, but had cut all the contacts because he realized that Zow had gripped women’s drinks.

The friend – who the BBC calls J – told us that he was “not surprised at all” when he heard that Zow was condemned.

“Many friends at the time probably knew (what the ZU did). I think some of our friends also knew.”

JG told us that he accidentally drank from a foreign cup at a party in 2022, and then became “unwell” and “very sleepy”. Then the ZU told him that he had poured the drink – says J – and meant the woman at the party to drink it.

GG says he later showed him a small bag of drugs and asked him if he wanted to “collaborate with him.” He says he took the fact that Zu wanted his help to find girls whose drinks he could jump. GG says he refused.

The BBC asked Gi why he initially continued to see the ZUU and why he did not go to the police. JG told us that they both have many mutual friends, so it was difficult not to socialize together. He says he warned his friends about ZUU, telling them not to hang with him, “because he has drugged people.”

Jo does not like to think about these memories, he says, and so he did not go to the police – adding that he believed that women’s testimonies were enough to condemn the ZU.

In the end, says J, he interrupted all his ties with him.

Another young woman who is related to police in London and China after the ZUU process is Rachel. She says she was drugged and raped by him in 2022 in his hometown of Donguan – in Guangdong Province.

Rachel told the BBC that she went to a meeting with the ZU after meeting him online. She thought they were going to a bar, she says, but found herself in his home, a large villa that he described as one of the many property of her family.

With his back, she turned to her, she says Zow mixed her with a green cocktail. Then they started a drinking game, she says, and she tested “a wave of dizziness.” Rachel told police in the United Kingdom that ZUU had taken her to a bedroom where she was unable to talk or move her body, and then raped her.

She thought of calling the police the next day, but decided against her. She feared it would be very difficult to be a non -consult. “It is difficult for me to prove the fact that I was ready to go to his drink and it was not a signal that she agreed to sex,” she said.

She added that Dongguan was a small place, and there was always a risk that the people she knew – her parents, relatives and colleagues – to understand and think she was “undisclosed”.

• Details of help and support in sexual abuse are available to BBC action line

We saw Rachel’s statement to the United Kingdom police. She wants her story to be heard now, according to her, to encourage more victims to go forward – and because she would like to see the ZUU to be persecuted in China as well as in the United Kingdom.

CDR Kevin Sutworth – who runs public protection in the Sofia Police – told BBC employees to still make their way through the 23 potential new cases and that some of the people are “definitely not identical” with those presented in the seized secret staff of Zou or the cases of the prosecution.

“This speaks to the fact that his offensive group is actually much more than we have realized,” he says.

A second trial for the convicted rapist is not excluded and there is a “certain case” to be discussed with the Crown Prosecutor’s Office, given the number of women going forward, he adds.

The BBC also talks to the only two casualties that police managed to identify before the ZUU process – both are Chinese citizens who have studied in London. The women got to know each other on social media after one of them, whom we call Beth, has published for her experience.

Beth was raped by the ZU in 2023 and tried to report the crime in the Sofia police shortly thereafter. But then she decided not to pursue things because she felt uncertain about the United Kingdom law and was left to feel discouraged after her initial interaction with the police, which included a bad translation of her 999 call.

“Then I didn’t know (the name of the Zu). I didn’t know his address, I could only give general information,” she says.

In powerlessness, Beth has published a warning on social media about what happened to her. Another Chinese student, Clara, said that “immediately” knew it was the same man who had drugged her and raped her after night in London Chinatown, two years earlier.

Every detail in Beth’s publication pointed out the same person, says Clara: “He has the accent of Guangdong, he looks honest and wears the Rolex Submariner clock.”

The women started talking online and Beth encouraged Clara to announce what had happened to her in the police.

Months later, police contacted Beth to say that they were examining the case again. Clara had come forward.

On the seized devices of Zou, the police also found a video featuring Beth.

Since then, Met has regretted how he initially dealt with his allegations.

“We want to avoid situations where the victims feel as if they may not be taken seriously or to ban God, do not believe,” says CDR Southworth. Now additional training unfolds all officers on the front line, he says.

Clara describes a positive experience with British police. She says she did not want to fly to London for the process if her parents understand, so Met sent two employees to China to support her, as he instead gives evidence with video.

Employees have been assisted by Chinese authorities who work with MET and are “very supportive,” says CDR Southworth.

“I hope this can give some encouragement to the victims of adults, wherever you are in the world, that you are safe to go out.”

Beth – who gave evidence in a court in London – says only after that she realized that she and Clara were the only two women who helped the convicted ZUU.

“I have long thought I was not an important part of the case against ZU,” she says.

She is now glad to testify and encourage other women to go out.

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