Advances in DNA technology have led to the arrest of a rapist who broke into a woman's North Shore home almost exactly 10 years ago.
Justin Ames Johnston, 22 at the time, stopped for a smoke while he was in the Birkdale unit, where he subjected the woman to threats, rape and other indignities.
A decade later that cigarette and a blood sample Johnston gave in November 1993 were re-analysed using updated technology, and a DNA match was made.
Yesterday, Johnston pleaded guilty in the High Court at Auckland to aggravated burglary, rape, unlawful sexual connection and taking the woman's car.
He is to be sentenced next month.
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