‘I felt disgusting’: Woman accuses UCL student of raping her while she was unconscious

A PhD student at University College London (UCL), Zhenhao Zou, is currently on trial for raping ten women. One of his accusers has told London Crown Court on 3rd February about how he wouldn’t let her leave his flat, and she felt “out of control”.

The woman used to study maths with Zou, then ran into him at a party on 18th May 2023. She went back to his flat in the Elephant and Castle area of London. He encouraged her to drink lots of wine. She started worry there was something “odd” about him, so she tried to leave. She says she cried on the floor, Zou dragged her by her clothes back towards his bedroom, then made her drink vodka.

The woman claims Zou agreed to give her money if she stayed in his flat.

She told the court: “He forced me to stay at his place that night after a great amount of alcohol. My emotion was not stable. So under the extreme loss of my emotional control, an agreement we had was either you let me go or give me money so that I can stay.”

The woman says she asked Zou to give her the equivalent of £11,000 if she stayed in the flat. She says this didn’t give him permission to have sex with her, and she didn’t actually expect him to pay her.

The trial is happening at the Inner London Crown Court

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In an interview with the police in February 2024, the woman said: “I felt very disgusting but I had no strength to fight him off. I can’t even remember when this finished because I had already passed out.” She then alleged Zou raped her while she was unconscious.

Police found photos and videos of the woman next to Zou’s bed. The footage was played in court. The woman screamed, and tried to leave several times, but Zou kept pushing her back onto the bed.

The woman told the court about how she struggled after the incident. She said: “I could not sleep, I could not eat, I felt disgusting. Physically, it was much worse than mentally.”

The court saw translations of text messages between Zou and the woman on the day after he allegedly raped her. The woman left her bag and e-cigarette in his flat. She messaged him asking where her bag was, and he sent a text which translates as either “it was wrong” or “I did something wrong”. He added: “Can we discuss this situation when we meet later?”

She replied: “Think about what you have done,” and apparently asked Zou to buy the handbag off her “as compensation”.

Zhenhao Zou was studying at University College London (UCL)
(Image by Glyn Baker via Creative Commons)

A day later, the woman texted Zou, “you are so disgusting”, “you should feel guilty for what you did”, and “now I just want to expose you”.

The woman posted about her experience online, and got in touch with another woman who is accusing Zou of rape.

She decided to phone the police after she’d been unable to sleep for three days. On 21st May, she told the police about the student raping her in London.

Zou claims this woman, and the other people in his videos, consented to having sex with him and were “role-playing”. He denies 11 charges of rape, 12 charges of possessing extreme pornography, eight counts of possessing a controlled drug with intent to supply it, three counts of voyeurism, and one count of false imprisonment.

Zhenhao Zou is 27 years old. He used to go to Queen’s University Belfast, then started studying engineering at University College London (UCL) in 2019.

University College London has listed support for students and staff who are affected by this case on their website.

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Featured image of UCL by Diliff via Creative Commons.