A PhD student from China was found guilty on Wednesday in a London court of drugging and raping 10 women in China and the UK, as British police warned there could be more than 50 other victims.

Zou Zhenhao, 28, was convicted of the attacks between 2019 and 2023 following a monthlong trial at the Inner London Crown Court.

London's Metropolitan Police said Zou used online platforms and dating apps to meet women who he invited to his home under the pretext of having drinks or studying before he drugged them.

He then filmed himself raping and sexually assaulting the women while they were unconscious, keeping some of their jewellery and clothing afterwards.

Zou was found guilty of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim.

After more than 19 hours of deliberations, jurors concluded Zou raped three of the women in London and seven in China.

The prosecutions relating to attacks in China were possible because foreign nationals who are living in the UK can be charged with an offence committed abroad that is also illegal in the country where it took place.

Police have only been able to identify two of the victims and said after the verdict that more than 50 other women may have fallen victim to Zou, which would make him one of the worst sex offenders in UK history.

Originally from Dongguan in Guangdong Province, the mechanical engineering doctoral candidate at University College London claimed that the sexual interactions were consensual.

He will be sentenced on June 19.

Judge Rosina Cottage described the defendant as a “dangerous and predatory sexual offender” and that his sentence will be “very long.”

Zou, who showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out in court, was also convicted of three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and three of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.

“He has done all that he can in these offences 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.

Police are appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact them. (Agencies)