The met police suspect Chinese PhD student Zhenhao Zou, convicted of drugging and raping 10 women, may have attacked dozens more victims worldwide.

Zhenhao Zou, a 28-year-old Chinese PhD student convicted of drugging and raping 10 women, is now the focus of an expanding global investigation as 23 more potential victims have come forward.

The Metropolitan Police had already feared Zou could be one of the UK’s most prolific sex offenders, estimating that he may have targeted over 50 women worldwide. Now, their appeal has uncovered more possible survivors from multiple countries, with detectives warning his crimes could be even more extensive than initially believed.

Zou was convicted last month at Inner London Crown Court of 11 counts of rape, along with charges of voyeurism, false imprisonment, and possession of extreme pornographic material. His pattern was chilling: he invited young Chinese women to his flat, drugged them, and recorded the assaults using hidden cameras, keeping footage and personal belongings as twisted souvenirs.

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth confirmed that some of the latest women to come forward may match victims already seen in Zou’s seized videos, while others could be entirely new cases. “We have victims reaching out from different parts of the globe,” he said. “Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been, there is every prospect he could have offended anywhere.”

Zou, who lived in student flats in London’s Russell Square and Elephant and Castle, previously studied in Belfast, though no reports have yet emerged from Northern Ireland. The Met is urging anyone who believes they may have been targeted by him to come forward, stressing that more resources are being devoted to uncovering the full extent of his crimes.

Victims can contact police via [email protected] or through the major incident portal on the Met’s website.