An alleged victim of a Chinese PhD student who is accused of drugging and raping 10 women sent him messages saying “you are so disgusting” and “you should feel guilty for what you did”, a court heard.
Last week jurors at Inner London Crown Court were shown a police interview where the woman claimed that Zhenhao Zou raped her after not allowing her to leave his flat in Elephant and Castle, south east London, in May 2023.
The woman told Detective Constable Emily Nice in February 2024 that they were drinking wine together but she began to find him “odd” and wanted to leave but he would not let her go, the court heard previously.
The woman said that at one point she was crying on the floor, and when she tried to leave he dragged her back by her clothes, before pushing her to drink vodka, jurors were told.
The woman said she asked Zou for 100,000 in Chinese currency (£11,000) to stay but told the detective that she did not expect the defendant to pay and that this did not allow him to have sex with her, the court was told.
She claims that he raped her while she was unconscious.
The woman gave evidence on Monday, and translated messages between her and the defendant before and after the alleged incident were read to the court.
On May 19, the day after the alleged incident, the woman and Zou were exchanging messages. The woman messaged Zou saying her bag and e-cigarette were at his flat and she sent a message which she told the court through a translator was her asking him to buy it “as compensation”.
The woman told jurors while they were drinking he agreed to give her “compensation”, asked what it was for, she said: “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.”
But she added this did not allow any sexual activities.
Also on May 19, the woman sent a message to the defendant saying “where is my bag” and he sent a message to the woman which was translated to “I had too much to drink” and the translation is either “I did something wrong” or “it was wrong” and “can we discuss this situation when we meet later”, prosecutor Catherine Farrelly KC said.
The woman replied to the defendant and said “think about what you have done”, the prosecution added, before asking her what she was referring to.
The woman told jurors: “What I was referring is he forced me to stay at his place and after a lot of alcohol he still wouldn’t allow me to go and dragged me into his room and raped me.”
Messages on May 20 were read, which were from the woman to Zou, in which she says “you are so disgusting” and “you should feel guilty for what you did”.
Asked by Ms Farrelly what she meant by that, the woman said: “After I was drunk he raped me and not allowing me to go home.”
At 4.22pm on May 20 the woman sent Zou a message saying “now I just want to expose you”, and asked what she was referring to, she said “what I meant was that I was going to expose him but without mentioning his name nor his picture”.
She added that she later “exposed my experience” on online groups.
The woman said she was hoping to “receive some support in making me feel better”.
On May 21 the woman sent Zou a message saying she had called the police.
The woman’s phone call to police, made at 4.21am on May 21, was played out loud to the court.
She told the court on Monday she decided to call the police as she “hadn’t been sleeping for three days”.
Police found video footage of the alleged rape filmed on a camera placed by his bed and graphic photographs of the alleged victim in Zou’s possession, the jury was told.
The woman is one of two of Zou’s 10 alleged victims who have been identified by police.
Zou, 27, is accused of drugging and raping 10 women in total, including three in London and seven in China, jurors heard.
Prosecutors say he filmed nine of the alleged victims, the footage of which was played in court last week.
The student moved to Belfast in 2017 to study at Queen’s University before heading to London in 2019 to do a master’s degree and then a PhD at UCL.
Zou denies 11 counts of rape as well as three counts of voyeurism, 12 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and eight of possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply.
He will argue that the sexual interactions were consensual, that drugs and alcohol were consumed by the women voluntarily, and that some of the footage captured involved role playing, jurors were told.
The trial continues.