China man, 42, extradited from S’pore to New Zealand for raping woman in her home

A Chinese national working in New Zealand fled the country after raping a woman who lived near his construction work site in March 2024.

Zhang Xuesong, now 42, was extradited to New Zealand in September 2025 after moving to Singapore for another construction job.

He has since pleaded guilty in Auckland's High Court on Aug. 31 to eight offences, including rape, aggravated burglary, threatening to kill, strangulation, unlawful detention, indecent assault and assault with a weapon, reported The New Zealand (NZ) Herald.

His sentencing date is scheduled for December.

What happened

According to NZ Herald, Zhang, who worked all over the city, had spent about three weeks on a site in West Auckland next to the victim’s home in late January and early February 2024.

He returned to the site a month-and-a-half later and drank three bottles of Tiger Beer before climbing the fence to the victim's home.

He then hid behind her bedroom door and rushed to her as she walked in.

Zhang proceeded to pin the woman to the bed and threatened to kill her if she screamed.

He then wrapped the tape twice around her head to cover her mouth before strangling her.

The victim temporarily lost consciousness, during which her landlord came to knock on her door to check on her.

The victim started to regain consciousness at this point, and Zhang brought his knife to her neck to threaten her again.

“If you [can’t] keep quiet and make [me] happy, I will go out and kill [the landlord],” he warned her, according to court documents seen by NZ Herald.

The landlord later left as they assumed the victim had experienced a nightmare.

Zhang went on to abuse the victim for the next hour-and-a-half, committing various sexual assaults on her.

Victim fought him off

The victim eventually managed to kick Zhang away at one point and screamed as loud as she could.

This time, the landlord called a male acquaintance over to check on her.

When Zhang realised there was another person in the house, he made his escape through the window.

Police eventually found the victim in her room, still “extremely confused and disoriented”.

She was taken to the hospital with numerous injuries, including deep bruises to her neck and wrists, NZ Herald reported.

Initially denied the offences

Zhang's vehicle was caught on CCTV driving around the block just minutes after police arrived and his DNA was also found at the crime scene.

When he was eventually extradited to New Zealand, he initially denied having raped anyone.

He claimed that he drank beer and played games on his phone before falling asleep at the site.

When told about the DNA match, he suggested that either he had been framed or the woman was a sex worker.

The judge reportedly approved the prosecution's request for two psychological reports necessary to seek preventive detention.

Preventive detention is a sentence without an end date reserved for those considered New Zealand’s most dangerous criminals, NZ Herald reported.

Rape usually carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment in the country.