Man hides behind woman’s bedroom door, rapes her, flees NZ and is later extradited from S’pore
A construction worker who hid behind a stranger’s bedroom door before strangling, binding and raping her in her Auckland home has pleaded guilty after being extradited from Singapore.
Chinese national Xuesong Zhang, now 42, pleaded guilty in the High Court at Auckland on Aug 31 to eight offences, including rape, aggravated burglary, threatening to kill, strangulation, unlawful detention, indecent assault and assault with a weapon.
The New Zealand Herald reported that Zhang had worked at a construction site next to the woman’s home in Massey, West Auckland, weeks before the attack in March 2024.
Stuff reported that the victim was 27 and was a stranger to Zhang.
After the attack, Zhang fled New Zealand for China. He was later found working in Singapore and extradited to New Zealand in September 2025.
Hid behind bedroom door and waited for woman
According to the agreed summary of facts reported by the NZ Herald, Zhang had spent the day working at another property in Remuera before driving back to the Massey development on March 26, 2024.
He drank three bottles of Tiger Beer at the neighbouring property, removed his work boots and climbed over the fence into the victim’s home.
Zhang was dressed in dark clothing and had with him gloves, a black ski mask, tape, a heavy-duty nylon strap and a knife with a 30cm blade.
At around 8.20pm, the woman left her bedroom to use the bathroom.
Zhang entered the room and hid behind the door .When she returned, he locked the door and rushed at her.
The woman screamed, but Zhang pushed her onto the bed and held the knife to her neck.
“If you scream again, I’ll kill you,” he told her in Mandarin, according to the NZ Herald.
He wrapped tape around her head to cover her mouth before strangling her until her vision went black and she briefly lost consciousness.
He then closed her bedroom window and pulled the curtains closed.
Threatened to kill woman in next room
The woman Zhang lived with heard the scream and tried messaging her before knocking on the bedroom door when she received no response.
As the victim regained consciousness, Zhang again held the knife to her neck and said: “If you [can’t] keep quiet and make [me] happy, I will go out and kill [the landlord].”
With no response, the homeowner assumed the victim simply had a nightmare and walked away.
Zhang then tied the victim’s hands with the nylon strap.
For the next one-and-a-half hours, Zhang sexually and physically assaulted her, repeatedly placing the knife against her neck and running it over her body, according to the agreed summary of facts.
During the assault, he sometimes asked for her consent despite her being gagged and held at knifepoint. He also licked and kissed the tape covering her mouth.
The assault eventually ended after Zhang placed the knife on the bed.
The woman moved her body over the weapon to prevent him from reaching it, before grabbing his genitals with all her strength and kicking him away with both legs.
The tape over her mouth had loosened, allowing her to scream.
Escaped through bedroom window
After hearing the scream at around 9.50pm, the other woman locked herself in her room and called a colleague who lived nearby for help.
NZ Herald reported that she called the victim repeatedly over the phone, at one point getting an answer but only hearing faint noises.
When her friend arrived, the pair called out and knocked on the victim’s bedroom door.
“Upon hearing another person’s voice, Mr Zhang removed the tape from [the victim’s] mouth and untied her hands,” court documents state.
He gathered his belongings and escaped through the bedroom window.
Police were called and later forced their way into the bedroom .The woman was found naked and “extremely confused and disoriented”, Stuff reported.
She was taken to hospital with injuries including deep bruising around her neck and wrists.
DNA recovered from her body was later matched to Zhang, while police also found the work boots he had left behind at the neighbouring property.
His vehicle was caught on CCTV driving around the block just minutes after police arrived.
Fled to China, later found in Singapore
Stuff reported that Zhang left New Zealand on April 4, 2024, on a flight to China, which does not have an extradition treaty with New Zealand.
Zhang subsequently moved to Singapore in May 2025 for another construction job.
He was extradited from Singapore to New Zealand in September 2025.
After his extradition, Zhang initially denied attacking the woman.
According to the NZ Herald, he told police he had gone to the neighbouring construction site because he liked spending time there, where he drank beer and fell asleep.
He claimed he was startled awake by a noise and drove away groggily, leaving his boots behind.
When asked how his DNA had ended up on the victim, he suggested that he had either been framed or that she was a sex worker.
Could face preventive detention
Zhang is due to be sentenced in December after pleading guilty to the charges.
Justice Michael Arthur approved the prosecution’s request for two psychological reports that would be required if it decides to seek preventive detention.
Preventive detention is an indefinite sentence reserved for offenders considered to pose a serious ongoing risk. Rape usually carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.
Prosecutor Matthew Nathan said the Crown had not yet decided whether it would seek the sentence but wanted to keep the option open.
“At this point, I think an assessment of risk is in everyone’s interests,” he said.
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