Convicted Professor Stalker Vows To Appeal

A fiercely ambitious account, convicted of stalking a London Business school professor she became obsessed with, vowed to appeal the case when she appeared at the Old Bailey today.

Zhaoyan Li, 41, stalked Oxford-educated Alex Edmans, 38, for approximately twenty months - demanding he be her lover and mentor - after she witnessed him addressing a career event.

She suddenly popped up at his church, gatecrashed his gym class, booked a holiday to follow him to Lanzarote and bombarded him with texts, emails and calls.

Now the professor, who has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos and testified to Parliament, will have to undergo the ordeal of giving evidence for a second time behind a screen.

At the height of Li’s campaign the professor was eventually too distressed to answer his office phone and quit regular activities. 

Li, of Rattan Apartments, Susannah Street, Canary Wharf was convicted of stalking Professor Edmans between February 1, 2017 and September 13, last year.

Li told City of London Magistrates Court, where she was found guilty, she may kill herself if convicted.

“I want to appeal,” she told the Old Bailey today, where she was due to be sentenced, and was bailed to return for an all-day hearing on April17.

Sentencing was postponed, pending the result of the appeal.

In the meantime Li has to obey conditions of bail not to contact Professor Edmans directly or indirectly or attend the London Business School.

“She is on bail and she needs to know if she breaches that she will be arrested,” announced Judge Rebecca Poulet QC. 

Professor Edmans told the court during Li’s trial last month that she  enjoyed taking photographs of him working out at a Hyde Park boot camp fitness club and groped his biceps after a class.

She began stalking him after he spoke at accountancy giants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) ‘Finding Purpose In Your Career’ seminar early last year.

“She said she wanted to become a partner at PwC, which was strange because she wasn’t even a trainee,” he explained. 

“She asked me if I was happy to have dinner with her because she had some questions about her career and I told her I had to go home.

“I went to Marks & Spencer’s and when I left she was waiting for me outside and followed me on the westbound tube even though she lived in the opposite direction and sat next to me.”

Li then joined a Surrey getaway hosted by Professor Edmans’ All Souls Church breakfast club. 

“Every mealtime she’d sit next to me and try to talk to me, even if I was talking to other people and this way annoying. She was trying to encroach on me and continually interrupting conversations I was having.”

The professor admits he eventually resorted to getting physical. “I squeezed the pressure points on her knee to cause a bit of pain.”

However, Li claims she took this under-the-table knee squeeze as a “come on” of a sexual nature.

Professor Edmans was bombarded with WhatsApp ad Facebook messages from Li, who suddenly appeared at his workout class when a picture needed to be taken.

“Out from the shadows Ms Li jumped up and said: ‘I’ll take the group photo.’ She must have been on the sidelines watching.

“She started touching my biceps, which was not solicited and then started coming to the boot camp, not to participate, but to take photos, presumably of me working out.

“I blocked her on facebook, but and then she contacted me through other means, I blocked her on WhatsApp and saved her as ‘Dirty Pervert.’

“She wanted to be in a relationship with me. It was as if she thought she had the right to have a relationship with me.”

In one message Li wrote: “I want a Mr. Right who loves me and cares about my feelings.”

Eventually All Souls Church banned her and Professor Edmans reported her to the police, who gave Li an official warning in January.

“She then started coming to the London Business School campus and using the internal phone and called me on February 14 to say: ‘Happy Valentines Day.’

“Normal things like checking emails filled me with horror and dread and each time I saw her number my heart sank because this ordeal was continuing.”

Eventually a panic alarm was fitted at the professor’s office and he quit the boot camp and church breakfast club after Li booked herself on their Canary Islands vacation.

“I thought: ‘There’s no getting away from her if she turns up in Lanzarote for the entire eight days.’”

Today Judge Rebecca Poulet QC told Li to consider her position: “The professor, the gentleman in question, would he to come to court so we’d have to fix a date for him.

“You can do so if you want to, but you may be penalised in costs if the court decided the magistrates were right and secondly if the court upholds the conviction it will then sentence you and the result would be that possibly your position would be more serious, the court having heard the professor give evidence.

“He would have to give evidence twice by then.”

The judge added: “If there is a total re-hearing of this case as there would be and if the court decided against her, if they upheld the conviction, she would have to pay quite substantial costs. Does she understand that?”