Hoax collar bomber had mental problems, ex-wife tells court
Court told of ex-HK banker's mood swings and hard drinking before bizarre extortion attempt
A former Hong Kong investment banker who admitted chaining a fake bomb to a teenager was reeling from the breakdown of his marriage, drinking heavily and exhibiting wild mood swings in the years before the bizarre extortion attempt, his ex-wife and a psychiatrist said yesterday.
Still, Deborah Peters testified at a Sydney sentencing hearing that she has no idea why Paul Peters committed the crime. "I don't know if even Paul knows why he did it," she said.
The 51-year-old faces up to 20 years in prison for tethering a bomb-like device to the neck of then-18-year-old Madeleine Pulver in August 2011 while she was alone in her family's Sydney mansion. In March, he pleaded guilty to aggravated breaking and entering and committing a serious indictable offence.
It took a bomb squad 10 hours to remove the device, but it contained no explosives and Pulver was not injured. Peters, who wore a rainbow-striped ski mask and wielded a baseball bat in the attack, left a ransom note with an e-mail address that helped authorities track him down in the US.
The former banker went to school in Hong Kong, the privileged son of a pilot, and spent part of his financial career there.
Deborah Peters wept in New South Wales state District Court yesterday as she described how her then-husband's behaviour began to change in 2000. "Paul started to disconnect," she told the court. "I didn't know who was going to walk through the door. ... One minute he'd be OK; the next minute he'd be upset or angry."
