Rapist who forced woman to complete his university coursework jailed

A student who raped an undergraduate and forced her to complete university coursework for him during a campaign of violent abuse has been jailed for six years.

Ziyi Shi, 22, repeatedly subjected his victim to sexual assaults and slapped her face and gripped her neck.

When she refused to have intercourse and let him examine her mobile phone, he bit her.

Shi made derogatory comments about the woman and threatened to disclose personal information about her to the public.

He raped the woman at student accommodation in Edinburgh when she was asleep and incapable of consenting, continuing with the assaults after she woke up.

A judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “You have been convicted of very serious crimes.”

Judge Thomas Welsh KC said: “I do not have a victim impact statement from the complainer but the actual harm you have done is incalculable.”

He told Shi: “You have limited insight into the true extent of your guilt.”

The judge said that in sentencing Shi he took into account that he was a first offender and has mental health issues.

He said: “I also take into account your age and the fact that you are very far from your family for support and very likely to be deported on completion of your sentence.”

But the judge added: “For offences like this custody is inevitable.”

Chinese national Shi had denied a series of charges at an earlier trial and maintained that sex was consensual, but was convicted of three crimes of rape, abusive behaviour towards the woman and breaching an undertaking not to contact the victim.

During one of the rapes on November 30 or December 1 in 2023, Shi attacked the woman and seized hold of her, grabbed her neck and choked her and repeatedly slapped her face during the sex attack.

His abusive behaviour towards her committed between September 2022 and January 2024 included making derogatory remarks, criticising her appearance and forcing her to complete his university assignments.

Shi told the court that he was assessed as suffering from a bipolar disorder. During his evidence he denied bullying the woman.

He said that as a consequence of the charges levelled against him, he was suspended by Edinburgh University.

The woman contacted a university student advisor who told the court: “She told me she had sex with him when she did not want it. She was very distressed. She had to keep stopping and taking deep breaths.”

Defence counsel Gary Allan KC said: “A custodial sentence will leave this young man very largely isolated from his family in China for a significant period.”

Shi was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.