Chinese PhD student jailed for life with minimum term of 24 years after drugging and raping 10 women

A Chinese PhD student has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years for drugging and raping 10 women.
Zhenhao Zou, 28, was convicted of the harrowing attacks involving two women who have been identified and another eight who have yet to be traced.
He kept a trophy box of women's belongings and filmed nine of the attacks, with jurors in the case forced to watch the disturbing footage.

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The Independent

34 minutes ago

• The Independent

Beijing official overseeing Hong Kong warns of persisting national security threats

A top Beijing official overseeing Hong Kong affairs on Saturday warned of persisting threats in the city as a China-imposed national security law approaches its fifth anniversary, while seeking to allay concerns about the law's impact on the financial hub's openness. Speaking at a forum about the law, attended also by the city leader John Lee and other officials. Xia Baolong, the director of China 's Hong Kong and Macao Work Office, said various forms of soft resistance continue to emerge in new forms and external forces have never ceased their intervention in Hong Kong. 'Hong Kong has transformed from chaos to order. But just as a tree desires stillness, the wind continues to blow," Xia said. The Beijing and Hong Kong governments deemed the law necessary to maintain the city's stability following anti-government protests in 2019. Under the law, many leading pro-democracy activists, including Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, were prosecuted. Dozens of civil society groups disbanded. This month, authorities have stepped up their crackdown, including charging young activist Joshua Wong, who was already sentenced last year over a subversion case, under the law for the second time and targeting a mobile game app. Last week, China's national security authorities in Hong Kong and the city's police launched their first publicly known joint operation, raiding the homes of six people on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security. Critics say the political changes indicate that the Western-style civil liberties Beijing promised to keep intact when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 are shrinking. But Xia said the law only targeted an extremely small number of people who severely endanger national security. He also sought to allay concerns about Hong Kong's openness and international position. He insisted that normal international exchanges do not violate Hong Kong's national security law but rather are protected by it.

BBC News

4 hours ago

• BBC News

Harry Dunn: What happened in the case of teenage motorcyclist?

Almost six years since the death of motorcyclist Harry Dunn outside a US military base in the UK, an investigative review has criticised the way Northamptonshire Police handled the driver of the car involved in the collision, US diplomat Anne Sacoolas, was handed an eight-month jail term, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to criminal did a road collision end up with the victim's family losing confidence in the police and the Northamptonshire force being criticised in an official report? Who was Harry Dunn? Mr Dunn's mother, Charlotte Charles, said the 19-year-old was "larger than life" with a "great" sense of 27 August 2019, he died in a crash near RAF Croughton, Northamptonshire, after Sacoolas's car struck his motorbike moments after she left the car was driving on the right-hand side of the road when it should have been on the had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration. They then both left the UK. Who is Anne Sacoolas? Sacoolas was described in the 2025 investigative review of the case as "a married mother of three" who had "held a US drivers' licence and had done so since the age of 15".At the time of the collision in 2019, her husband Jonathan was a US intelligence officer and the couple and their three children had been in the UK for a few family's four-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son had been in the car with their mother when the collision happened. They had been attending a barbecue at RAF a court hearing in Virginia in 2021, a barrister said that Ms Sacoolas herself had been "employed by an intelligence agency in the US" at the time of the crash and her work was "especially a factor" in her leaving the immunity gives some people, such as foreign diplomats and, in some cases, their families, protection from arrest and prosecution in their host had, however, been a secret agreement between the UK and US governments that allowed for the prosecution of diplomats for crimes committed outside their duties but gave their families greater protection. Why did the crash cause a diplomatic row? Following the fatal crash, Mr Dunn's parents Mrs Charles and Tim Dunn, aided by spokesperson Radd Seiger, began a campaign to have the case brought to led them to the White House and a meeting in October 2019 with Donald Trump, then in his first term as US the meeting, he revealed Sacoolas was in the next room, but the family felt "ambushed" and did not meet December 2019, the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised Northamptonshire Police to charge Sacoolas with causing Mr Dunn's an extradition request for her to be brought to the UK was rejected by the US the then-Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, when she was Foreign Secretary, raised the case with the US government. How did Anne Sacoolas end up in court? In the absence of extradition, the family launched a civil claim for damages against Sacoolas and her husband in the December 2021, the CPS said Sacoolas would appear at court in the UK to face unspecified a month later it said the court date had been postponed to allow "ongoing" discussions with the US national's legal a change in the law meant Sacoolas was able to appear in court via video-link and she pleaded guilty on screen at the Old Bailey to causing death by careless driving on 20 October 2022. The 45-year-old was originally charged with causing death by dangerous driving, but the CPS accepted her plea to the lesser was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment suspended for 12 months, once again appearing via video-link after the US government advised Sacoolas not to attend her sentencing was also disqualified from driving for 12 months. What did Harry Dunn's family say after the hearing? Mrs Charles said: "Getting to court and getting to where we are now has been the most monumental thing for me because I can talk to him now and tell him we've done it. Promise complete."Mr Dunn Snr said: "I go up to the crash site quite a lot - I went there a couple of days ago to strim and put some daffodils in ready for the spring."Hopefully we've given hope to other families that they can do the same as us and get justice and believe and fight because it will happen in the end, it will happen." What has happened since the sentencing? A second funeral for Mr Dunn was held in March 2024 after human tissue was found on clothing returned to the inquest in June 2024 concluded Mr Dunn died as a result of a road traffic collision, and the coroner called for driver training to be given to US personnel working in the UK. Northamptonshire Police launched an investigation into how the case was handled from the beginning. What did the investigation find? The review, written by a former senior police officer, made 38 separate found that, while officers believed Sacoolas was in a state of shock at the time, she "could and should have been arrested" after the also revealed that Mr Dunn was subjected to drug testing after the collision, but Sacoolas was review said none of the officers at the scene managed to gather footage from their body-worn cameras. It was also very critical of the chief constable at the time, Nick Adderley, who was sacked for gross misconduct in 2024 for lying about his career in the Royal said he made "erroneous statements" about Sacoolas's immunity status, and should not have criticised the family's spokesperson, Radd Seiger, at a press conference. The force has apologised for failing to "do the very best for the victim".Mrs Charles said: "I'm absolutely bewildered that the most fundamental of policing was not carried out. I'm struggling to get my head around that."Mr Seiger said Mr Adderley "nearly derailed" attempts to get justice for Mr Dunn but that Northamptonshire Police, under a new chief constable, was now "headed in the right direction". Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

The Guardian

8 hours ago

• The Guardian

Relief and a raised fist as Mahmoud Khalil goes free – but release ‘very long overdue'

Mahmoud Khalil squinted in the afternoon sun as he walked away from the fences topped with razor wire, through two tall gates and out into the thick humidity of central Louisiana. After more than three months detained in this remote and notorious immigration detention center in the small town of Jena, he described a bittersweet feeling of release, walking towards a handful of journalists with a raised fist, visibly relieved, but composed and softly spoken. 'Although justice prevailed, it's very long overdue and this shouldn't have taken three months,' he said, after a federal judge in New Jersey compelled the Trump administration to let him leave detention as his immigration case proceeds. 'I leave some incredible men behind me, over one thousand people behind me, in a place where they shouldn't have been,' he said. 'I hope the next time I will be in Jena is to actually visit.' Flanked by two lawyers, and speaking at a roadside framed by the detention center in the backdrop, he told the Guardian how his 104 days in detention had changed him and his politics. 'The moment you enter this facility, your rights leave you behind,' he said. He pointed to the sprawling facility now behind him. 'Once you enter there, you see a different reality,' he said. 'Just a different reality about this country that supposedly champions human rights and liberty and justice. Once you cross, literally that door, you see the opposite side of what happens on this country.' Khalil is the most high profile of the students arrested and detained by the Trump administration for their pro-Palestinian activism. He was the final one left in detention, following an arrest that saw him snatched from his Columbia apartment building in New York. The Trump administration has labelled Khalil a national security threat and invoked rarely used powers of the secretary of state under immigration law to seek his removal. The administration has fought vigorously to keep Khalil detained and continues to push for his removal from the US. Asked by the Guardian what his response to these allegations were, Khalil replied: 'Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this. That doesn't mean there is a right person for this. There is no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide.' He spoke briefly of his excitement of seeing his newborn son for the first time away from the supervision of the Department of Homeland security. The baby was born while Khalil was held in detention. He looked forward to their first hug in private. He looked forward to seeing his wife, who had been present at the time of his arrest. He smiled briefly. And then he turned back towards, ready to take him on the first leg of a journey back home.