Man jailed in Australia for fake bomb threat

A man has been arrested in Australia has been sentenced to at least ten years in prison for chaining a teenage girl with a fake bomb in her home as part of an extortion plot.

In August 2011 Paul Douglas Peters walked in to 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver’s home wearing a ski mask and carrying a baseball bat.

He fettered a bomb-like device to her neck along with a ransom note before leaving the premises of the panicked teen.

It took ten hours for a bomb squad to remove the device before they discovered that it contained no explosives.

Prosecutors called Peters’ use of a fake bomb an act of urban terrorism.

Presiding Judge Zahra said at the sentencing that Peters’ intention was to instill the fear into his young victim that she would be killed.

Pulver hugged relatives after the sentence was read out and spoke of her “relief”.

After the sentencing she said: “I’m pleased with today’s outcome and that I can now look forward to the future without Paul Peters’ name being linked to mine,

“I realise it’s going to take quite some time to come to terms with what happened, but today was important because now the legal process is over.

“For me it was never about the sentencing but to know that he will not re-offend, and it was good to hear the judge acknowledge the trauma he’s put my family and me through.”

Peter’s was arrested two weeks after terrorising the teenager at his ex-wife’s home in the United States, Louisville, Kentucky,

Shortly after terrorising the teen, Peters fled to the United States, but authorities tracked him by using an email address he had left on the ransom note to track him down.

Two weeks later he was arrested him his ex-wife’s home in Louisville, Kentucky, and extradited back to Australia.