A device attached to a terrified Sydney teenager for 10 hours yesterday was a fake, police have confirmed.
"A very, very elaborate hoax as it turned out," NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch said today after police released Madeleine Pulver, 18, from the device after a delicate operation.
"But it was made and certainly gave the appearance of a legitimate improvised explosive device," he told the media outside the Wenona High School student's home at Mosman on Sydney's north shore.
"We had to treat it seriously until we could prove otherwise and that's exactly what we did and that's why it took so long."
The suspected bomb was attached to the young woman after a masked man burst into her family home about 2pm yesterday in Burrawong Avenue where she lives with her parents Bill and Belinda Pulver, reportedly one of Sydney's wealthiest families.
It sparked a tense, drawn out operation to secure her safety, which ended shortly before midnight when bomb disposal experts safely removed the device.
"It was affixed to her by a chain or something similar, which eventually took us a fair while to remove ... and that added to the trauma that Madeleine experienced and prolonged," Mr Murdoch said.
"There were some instructions left by the offender at the scene and those instructions will provide us with further lines for inquiry," Mr Murdoch told ABC radio.
"Those instructions also limited us somewhat last night in how quickly we could proceed.
"Certainly the instructions were precise, they were such that led us to believe that we were dealing with a very serious and legitimate threat."
Madeleine's parents had no idea why their daughter had been targeted, he said.
"They were clearly and understandably very upset by what had happened.
"They were very, very concerned for their daughter as any parent would be.
"They were at a loss to explain why them, why they'd been ...why this had happened to them as opposed to anyone else."
NSW police sought advice from British military experts and Australian Federal Police as they worked to make the device safe.
The young woman was taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital for checks and was released at 3am today.
Mr Murdoch told reporters outside Madeleine's home it was "far too early" to establish a motive for the attack.
If they catch the guy I hope there is something they can charge him with that keeps him behind bars for at least 25 years or so.
Re: Bomb hoax..
Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 1:41 am
by dales
I'm with you, Scooter.
What are the legal statutes on "domestic terrorism" in Austrailia?
Re: Bomb hoax..
Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:22 am
by Gob
Update;
In an extraordinary breakthrough in an extraordinary case, a 50-year-old Australian man has been arrested in the United States over the collar bomb hoax on Sydney schoolgirl Madeleine Pulver.
The man, who police say does business in Australia and the US, was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky about 5.30am AEST today (3.45pm Kentucky time on Monday) by the FBI and two detectives from the NSW Robbery and Serious Crime Squad's Strike Force Haddon.
Police confirmed that the man had not been a suspect until he left Australia on August 8, after which he was placed under surveillance. He is now in custody and police will seek his extradition to Australia.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Dave Hudson said the suspect had some connection to the Pulver family, but no "direct links". He was not believed to have been inside the Pulver home before.
He said the bomb hoax was still being treated as an extortion attempt.
Sydney man Paul Peters has pleaded guilty to charges he strapped a hoax collar bomb to teenager Madeleine Pulver in a bid to extort millions from her family.
The 18-year-old, who was doing her HSC at the time of the frightening ordeal in August last year, was in Central Local Court with her parents, Bill and Belinda, for Peters's guilty plea.
The bizarre incident caused international headlines and shocked the residents of the exclusive Sydney suburb of Mosman, on the lower north shore.
Peters appeared on a video screen from prison as his solicitor formally entered his plea of guilty to one count of aggravated breaking, entering and stealing.
The magistrate and the Crown accepted the guilty plea.
Police arrested 52-year-old Peters in the United States two weeks after the incident, having tracked him to the quiet heritage town of Louisville, Kentucky.
his plea of guilty to one count of aggravated breaking, entering and stealing.
Frankly that doesn't sound like particularly serious charging considering what he did...(it doesn't look like he's even being charged with assault, or any other physical crime)
What is the most time he could serve if convicted?
Re: Bomb hoax..
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:18 am
by Gob
Jim, other reports have;
Paul Douglas Peters appeared briefly in Sydney's Central Local Court today via audio-visual link and pleaded guilty to aggravated breaking and entering, and committing a serious indictable offence.
I think that last one means his sentence will be determined on merits.
Re: Bomb hoax..
Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:56 am
by Gob
The man who attached a fake collar bomb around the neck of a Sydney schoolgirl in a bid to extort money from her wealthy parents has been sentenced to 13 years and six months in jail.
He would have appreciated the enormity of what he was doing and the impact on the victim. His mental condition did little to reduce the moral culpability - he would have understood that his victim was in fear for her life
Peters will be eligible for parole in August 2021 for the crime - a non-parole period of 10 years
After initially denying any involvement with the crime, Peters pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter and detaining for advantage in March this year, much to the relief of his teenage victim and her parents, Bill and Belinda Pulver.
In sentencing Peters on Tuesday, Judge Zahra rejected the claim that Peters was affected by a disturbed state of mind and had ultimately wanted to be caught.
Instead, he found Peters was seeking financial gain through a carefully planned extortion attempt and that he was aware of the terror he was inflicting.
"I'm not prepared to accept that the offending was the product off being in a psychotic state," Judge Zahra said.
"I'm not prepared to accept that he was taking on the persona of a character from his book [that he was writing]."
