A sex offender who drugged his victims and installed spy cameras around his home has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years – as police appeal for hundreds more potential victims to come forward.
Warning: This article contains details of sexual offences
Chinese national Chao Xu, 33, who was a law postgraduate student at the University of Greenwich in London between 2015 and 2016 and ran his own recruitment business, targeted victims at networking events at his home.
He invented his “Spring of Life” cocktail, a mix of alcohols and Chinese herbal medicines, to sedate guests, and planted spy cameras in items including air fresheners, sanitary packaging and speakers.
Police found thousands of pictures and videos, with some showing unconscious or incapacitated victims in his flat in Greenwich, south-east London.
Xu, who is from China but is believed to have been living in the UK since 2013, also covertly filmed women on their daily commutes at stations such as London Bridge in so-called upskirting incidents.
He pleaded guilty to 24 sex offences between 2021 and 2025 at Woolwich Crown Court in August relating to six victims, with two charges relating to a seventh woman left to lie on file.
Xu admitted four counts of rape, eight counts of assault by penetration, four counts of sexual assault, four counts of voyeurism, two counts of administering a substance with intent and two counts of operating equipment beneath the clothing of another without consent (commonly known as upskirting).
Another 11 alleged victims have since come forward but the Metropolitan Police believe there are hundreds more in the UK and China, with offences committed in workplaces, public spaces and overseas.
Acting Detective Superintendent Lewis Sanderson described it as “a particularly horrific case” and that Xu was one of the “most prolific” offenders the force has ever investigated.
“The are numerous victims that we’ve identified, we’ve got several that we haven’t identified as yet and we believe there are significant numbers that we haven’t identified and we haven’t got any evidence of as yet,” he said.
“We also believe that he’s been involved in voyeurism offences and he had covert cameras within his home address, as well as upskirting female victims on their daily commute in public and in private settings and again we believe there may be hundreds more victims that we haven’t identified as yet.”
He said all of the sexual assault victims were Chinese women, aged between 18 and 30, while the voyeurism victims are also young females but of different ethnicities.
“There are hundreds, if not thousands of images of upskirting and these have taken place over several years within London and it’s something we continue to investigate and try to identify those victims who may not even know that they are victims of crimes due to the fact that they may have been drugged by Xu,” the officer added.
Detectives were alerted to Xu’s crimes after he held a networking event in Greenwich in June.
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When one of the women who attended became unwell, Xu offered to let her stay, before raping her several times, the Metropolitan Police said.
They later found he had drugged her with substances known to cause drowsiness and incapacitation.
The case included six million messages on WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging app, most of them in Mandarin, which all had to be checked with the help of a translator.
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Zou recorded nine of the assaults between 2019 and 2023. Three of his victims were raped in London and seven in China, his trial at Inner London Crown Court heard.
He was jailed for 24 years and will be eligible for parole in 2048.
