Zou, who also used the name Pakho online, befriended fellow students of Chinese heritage on WeChat and dating apps before inviting them for drinks and drugging them at his apartments in London or an unknown location in China.
The UK Metropolitan Police said Zou’s home was searched after a woman came forward to report him.
Police found the drugs butanediol and ketamine, as well as a number of hidden cameras. They seized laptops and mobile phones, which helped uncover the scale of Zou’s offending.
Officers downloaded 6.5 terabytes of data from the devices, including hundreds of videos and around nine million WeChat messages.
“He has done all that he can in these offenses to incapacitate his victims to the point where they could not resist his attack, and in many instances may not even remember what has occurred to them,” said Metropolitan Police Commander Kevin Southworth.
The Metropolitan Police said it was assisted by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, which helped to facilitate a victim-survivor giving evidence against Zou.
Southworth thanked the two women who testified against the “particularly cowardly and deceitful” Zou and said there is evidence that he “may have potentially attacked as many as 50 other women in the same awful nature”.
The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force.
During the trial, a call to the police from one of the women led to questions over the quality of the interpreter made available.
“It’s a matter of severe regret that the victims didn’t necessarily get that best translation at the time,” Southworth added.
