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Dean Lewins / EPA, file
Detectives drive collar bomb suspect Paul Peters from Sydney International Airport in September 2011, after he was extradited from the U.S.
A man who strapped a fake bomb around the neck of a Sydney schoolgirl and then fled to the United States was jailed for 13 and a half years on Tuesday after an Australian court ruled he had instilled unimaginable fear into his victim.
The case sparked an international manhunt and led to a tense 10 hours for teenager Madeleine Pulver, 18, after the man broke into her family's luxury home in August 2011 and chained what he said was a bomb around her neck, leaving a note demanding money.
After extensive tests, bomb technicians determined the box was harmless.
Police in the United States arrested Paul Douglas Peters, 52, in Kentucky at his former wife’s home about two weeks after the incident by tracking him through email accounts. In September 2011 he was extradited to Australia.
'Collar bomb' extortion case: Banker who fled to Kentucky pleads guilty
Defense lawyers said Peters had suffered depression in the months before the attack and had no memory of his actions. Prosecutors said Peters had planned to target a neighbor of the Pulver family, and broke into the wrong house.
A young woman in Sydney says a man wearing a ski mask strapped an explosive device to her neck. TODAY.com's Dara Brown reports.
"He would have appreciated the enormity of what he was doing and the terrible effect and consequences of his actions on the victim," Sentencing District Court Judge Peter Zahra said. "The fear instilled can only be described as unimaginable."
He sentenced Peters, who pleaded guilty to “aggravated break and enter”, to 13 years and six months in prison, with a minimum 10 years to be served before he can apply for parole.
Before the attack, Peters was the CEP of Appen Butler Hill, a company that provides language and voice-recognition software and services.
The legal ordeal is over for fake collar bomb victim Madeleine Pulver after her attacker, Paul Peters, pleaded guilty.
Outside the court, Pulver said she was pleased Peters would not be able to hurt anyone else, and that the court acknowledged the impact of his crime on her family.
"It was good to hear the judge acknowledge the trauma (Peters) has put my family and me through," said Pulver, who plans to attend university in Sydney next year. "It's been a surprise to me that this year has been much harder than last year, but I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful family and friends and we are all making great progress.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Appen Butler Hill is the company associated with the victim's family, not the perpetrator.
deleted, was warning of RobertaJohnson's post
13 1/2 years for this terrorizing crime. Not long enough. I hope his time is spent getting attacked by his fellow inmates.
And no lube!
C'mon guys. Not everyone gets raped in prison. Why does everyone want every criminal, regardless of the crime, to get butt raped????
I was in prison for 7 years and no one even came close to that region... without my consent.... if you know what I mean. ;)
So GCK, are you implying you did consent? And no, having never been in prison, I don't have a clue what you mean.
Just curious, not meant to be a flame.
Butch said "attacked". Mymom is a troll implying rape. I wouldn't want anyone to get raped.
@GCK, I know exactly what you mean. Everytime i read a comment section, regardless of website, people always say the person is gonna get raped. What do people think, that people in jail go around raping each other everyday?
Can't wait to go to jail and get raped.... LOL.
I just go get a plane ticket and the TSA gives me my thrills.
One bit of humor in a very sad situation.
bunch of f@gs
No, Chepe vargas
I am not a f@g, I am just an old single lady, which of course you would not know.
What an utter monster. There aren't alot of forms of pure terror that rank alongside with what he did...and to a young teenage girl no less. Brief prison sentence in my opinion.
GCK - I got to agree with you - people are under the uniformed opinion that the jails are full of guys running around raping each other. I think we have Hollywood to thank for that. I worked in corrections for 25 years and can attest that most people that have sex in jail do so because they want to. It is very rare to have an actual rape in jail. I can recall a few murders in my years spent working with the imprisoned but not one case of actual rape.
I was just trolling about going to prison, etc. lol
Defense lawyers said Peters had suffered depression in the months before the attack and had no memory of his actions.
"He would have appreciated the enormity of what he was doing and the terrible effect and consequences of his actions on the victim," Sentencing District Court Judge Peter Zahra said. "The fear instilled can only be described as unimaginable."
OBJECTION YOUR HONOR!!!!! Calls for speculation...on your behalf as well as the defendant's. He claims to have no memories of the crime. There is nowhere in the DSM IV that states memory loss is an affect of depression. Also your honor, you said the fear is "unimaginable." So how do you, or the defendant, have any idea of what the victim has, and will, endure???
What a moron!!! I understand the judge's intent, but his statement is not only ignorant, he contradicts himself.
No one can imagine what kind of fear this poor young lady went through and also the effects of PTSD she is sure to suffer.
I agree with Butch. 13 1/2 years is nowhere near enough for this heinous act. It would be if Peters had a REAL collar bomb around his neck and the victim had control of the switch. Maybe they should be an electric shock collar on him instead and let the victim come to the prison and zap him at will. THAT would be justice!!
GCK....the reason you weren't raped is because you gave it up voluntarily!
The wrong house? Criminals are bad enough but stupid criminals are the most dangerous kind. Let him into general population and see if he can survive on those wits. If morons are just left to defend they succumb to the laws of survival.
"He had no memory..." I can understand a claim of memory loss due to temporary insanity (though I don't buy them) but this was hardly a split second crime of passion. Lame, lame, lame.
not enough time for this sicko.public execution would be much better.
i have a creative idea for his punishment... for his entire sentence, strap a fake bomb to his neck... but of course don't tell him it is fake... then everyday, make him push one of ten buttons, and tell him if he presses the one wrong button the bomb will go off...
of course there is no wrong button, and the bomb is a fake... but this would make him feel like his victim...
I think the man got too much time, the girl was not hurt and he stole nothing. His crime seemed more like a joke than anything else. People here calling fo him to be raped or publicly exicuted need some serious help. Far worse crimes than this, such as rape, recieve less time than this (five years on average). Get over yourselfs. Doubt anyone here has the right to judge.
Stefon..............we all have the right to our opinion, just as you think you yourself do. The only difference between my opinion and yours is that I am right, and you are so freaking wrong it's offensive. And stupid. And exceedingly wrong.
"this was more of a JOKE?????? Are you off your meds? OMG,,, You just don't get that the girl thought HER HEAD WAS ABOUT TO BE BLOWN OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then it's agreed, Stefon is an idiot.
Jail in that country is not what you think........... 13.5 years is nothing in a country club, easier by far than the FBOP. I think 2 years in Nicaragua or similar place would be fine with me, if everyone is going to fret about the time he was sentenced to.
So he shouldn't get time for kidnapping and extortion?
She spent 10 hours thinking she had a bomb strapped to her neck. 10 hours can seem like an eternity & quite possible very hard to get over that kind of trauma. She was not hurt physically, but what about the mental anguish this young girl & her family suffered during this ordeal. You ask us not to judge, yet you do not have one bit of human compassion for the victims. & yes, I judge you as a cold, heartless @!$%#.
Stefon - Congratualtions on posting the most stupid post of 2012!! Lots of competition, for sure, but your idiocy reigns supreme!!
Did his lawyer really believe that his client had no memory of his act? The lawyer should be disbarred for being either so stupid to believe it or lying to the court. If he was lying, he should be imprisoned.
I am sure the lawyer knew what's up. He just has to follow what his client tells him unless he is about to commit a crime and he can stop it. The lawyer is not lying. He is just repeating what his client says. But I would have told him, " You better pay me in full before you forget".
Too bad he didn't get the death penalty. I hope the Aussies will highly publicize this case to their general prison population (and in turn I hope they don't shield him from the wrath of the general population). Maybe they can appropriately tattoo in plain text the details of his offense in a highly visible place, like his forehead or cheek. I highly doubt that prisons, or rather I should say the inmates, in Australia are any more friendly than the ones here in the U.S. Perhaps he will have a welcome committee waiting for him when he arrives at prison.
Buzz,
I have to disagree with you and all the others carrying pitch forks and torches screaming for the death penalty. I see no reason to call for the death penalty in this case... Traditionally the death penalty is applied to crimes where someone is murdered, and in cases where the said murder was extraordinarily
violent (is there really any other kind?), premeditated. or involving multiple victims (although not always the case).
This case fits none of that criterion. True, the young woman was terrorized, but in the end, was she physically harmed, or killed? No. I would also agree with what the Judge said, the mental and emotional anguish probably was unimaginable. That being said, I might add that while mental, and emotional anguish (duress) would be grounds for a civil suit, as far as I know, it's not prosecutable under the law.
Please, the man has been punished too much for what seems like a joke. People are too soft in this day and age. Seeing any little offense as a reason to mount their high horse and pass judgement. Get over yourselves. Everyone calling for his rape, death or torture are sicker than he is by a mile. Even rapist only recieve five years on average. Somehow I think that if the victim were a boy and the criminal a female, you all would think twice before calling for violence to be done upon her.
stefon...............scaring the living sh!t out of someone isn't a joke. Are you mentally ill? Why don't you get over YOURSELF.
Troll LOLOL
Stefon61,
Is the 61 your I.Q ?
This is a poorly written article once again by NBC. It's my own fault because I'm a creature of habit and I maintain MSN as my homepage. Had to go to an Australian paper to get above excerpt and the detail the guy was flat broke. Motive is the most important element to a crime. If you do not show motive then soft minded people will give empathy to the criminal and less focus on the victim. It wasn't a joke but an extortion, kidnapping case.
Stefon- This was a depraved act against a woman. She was terrorized in a way you obviously cannot understand or you would not make such a statement. In the US kidnapping is a very, very serious crime and apparently they take it seriously in Australia as well. Imagine that was your child (or sister or wife) being taken and something she believed was a bomb was strapped around her neck - ready to blow her head off at any moment. 10 hours of terror you cannot imagine. If you think this is a joke you may need to re-evaluate your sanity. Only a sociopath would find this funny.
How does her being a woman make it nay worse? Were this a man, you would probably think dofferently. I have expierenced actual sexual abuse when I was a child. Please, the girl was unharmed, any emotional damage cand be helped with therapy. Yeah, like the kids who are arrested for brigning plastic guns to school, lol. Tn hours of terror? Try three years of rape... Then get back to me.
stefon.............you have no idea how we would probably think. You're a psychic now? And stefon........we don't want to get back to you. We don't want to be anywhere near you.
Stefon,
you have no relevant points to make on this issue.
"Please, the girl was unharmed, any emotional damage cand be helped with therapy."
That sentence right there indicates you're not in touch, sounds like you need therapy.
She was not unharmed?
Stefon "any emotional damage cand be helped with therapy"
I can see how well therapy helped you.
GOP has his/her nickers in a twist, I see. Get over YOURSELF. Stefon has a right to his opinion, whether you agree or not.
He admitted he planned the attack and knew he went into the wrong house, but he had no memory of his actions? He should get 14 years for expecting anyone to believe that steaming pile of lies, and take his lawyer (who most likely helped him concoct this BS) with him.
This guy terrorized a young person. He deserves very severe treatment.
As to the claim he doesn't remember. Total BS. It's a convenient way to avoid dealing with the heinous truth.
He deserves life with a real bomb strapped around his neck.
His sentence should be to strap a bomb around his neck, then in 13 1/2 yrs detonate it!
Thank you all for proving my point, as soon as someone shows a different opinion aside from the Angry Self-rightouse- Mob mind set is automatically a troll. Never fails. The fact remains that the girl was never in any danger. There are children suffering from real tauma, kids who may grow up to be no better than the people that hurt them and yet no one cares until the reada bout it on the interent. Please, get off those high horses, the fall maybe to much for you to bear.
This girl will suffer from real trauma too stefon...............BECAUSE SHE DID NOT KNOW THE BOMB WAS FAKE. Jeez you're an azzhole. Did you ever consider that we're not an angry self righteous mob and that you're SICK and WRONG?
I'm going with the mob mentality, for sure. I see the nickers are still twisted.
Stefon needs help from counselors.
Hey Stefon, you moron, if your daughter was being tortured like this then, it would be okay, right? You are such a @!$%#ing @!$%# or has @!$%# for brains and a @!$%#ing @!$%#.
I once went through life threatening voice messages for a week. I went to confront them one time in a parking lot and they never showed. I realized it was all fake. It was a horrible sad time. I prayed and cried to God. I slowly started to put the clues together and I discovered who the 3 a'holes were and confronted them. One stopped when I went to his face and told him it was him. The others kept at it until I went to his house armed and ready. But I turned back and called him over the phone, spoke to his wife, and described what was next to his door in the apartment. He knew I was no longer playing. Never got a phone call again. Sometimes you have to go through things to become stronger. Till this day I ask myself if I see him, I plan to call him out in public and smack him like a biotch. Maybe not. I'm better than that garbage.
A very stupid man thinks:
"Gee, what should I do today? I know! I'll strap a fake bomb around the neck of a Sydney schoolgirl and instill unimaginable fear into my victim....then flee to the United States and be jailed for 13 and a half years! What a great idea!"
Look a the both of them. The criminal and the victim. The look so much alike they could be father and daughter. Has nothing to do with anything - but hey, I'm just sayin'. The profiles. Wow.
So Stefon is out to test people and see what gets them angry. He don't need counseling, he needs a good jail rape and be someone's biotch.
Wow,
"biotch"
You are so street!
Note to future fugitives:
One of the first things law enforcement does with high profile fugitives, is they subpoena your email account, get into it and monitor it. They have the email company tell them what ip address you are using when you log in or send an email. In less than a minute your location can be pinpointed down to your exact location.
You need to research on the internet ways of covering your tracks. I just can't stand it anymore, hearing about these dumb mistakes fugatives make, that get them caught. If you go to all the trouble of fleeing to the other side of the planet, don't call your Mom on her birthday or get on your internet account or use your credit card, ect..
Please ignore Stefon people. He seems like a nobody.