Real estate agent admits kidnapping girl, 5

Cina Ma was discovered wrapped in a blanket in an empty house. Photo / Supplied

A North Shore real estate agent has admitted kidnapping a five-year-old girl with intent to hold her for ransom.

Deqiong Deng, also known as Aaron, 25, had previously denied unlawfully abducting Cina Ma last year.

But at North Shore District Court this morning Deng changed his plea to guilty.

"I'm guilty and I'm sorry. I'm sorry to the family and the little girl," he said. Deng was remanded in custody for sentencing at the High Court in Auckland on May 12.

Cina Ma's father left without commenting to media. Police said it was good that Deng had pleaded guilty.

Cina, also known as Xin Xin, was taken from outside her Albany home on Auckland's North Shore by a masked man on July 14 2008, bundled into a car and driven away.

She was found unharmed five days later in a walk-in wardrobe in a new but unoccupied house a couple of hundred metres away from her home.