A BUSINESSMAN HAS been arrested in connection with the fake collar bomb case in Australia.
An FBI SWAT team descended on a home in a quiet Louisville suburb to arrest the man, Paul ‘Doug’ Peters (50) yesterday.
Authorities say Peters broke into a family’s home in Australia and chained a fake bomb to a teenage woman’s neck as part of an extortion ploy.
He faces charges in Australia that include kidnapping and breaking and entering, Luke Moore of the New South Wales police said.
Peters was due for a court appearance this morning. He is an Australian citizen.
It is expected the extradition process will take about two months.
The collar bomb case took place nearly two weeks ago, when 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver was attacked in the wealthy Sydney suburb of Mosman.
She was alone studying for exams when a masked man broke into her house, chained a device that looked like a bomb to her and left a note with demands on it before leaving.
Neighbouring homes were evacuated, streets were closed and Pulver spent 10 hours chained to the device before the bomb squad freed her.
The device was found to contain no explosives.
At a news conference yesterday, Moore said that “there was a range of pieces of evidence that led us to identify this suspect”.
William Pulver, CEO of an information technology company, described his daughter as “a bright, happy young woman who for reasons we still don’t understand had her life turned upside down going through this dreadful experience.”
With his wife Belinda at his side, he said:
These past two weeks have been a very difficult time for us and we are hopeful that this development marks the beginning of the end of this traumatic ordeal for our family.
Neighbours of the arrested man in Kentucky said that Peters had spent about six months out of the last two years at the house.
Authorities are still investigating why he targeted the young woman.
- AP
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