Collar bomb attacker 'just got the wrong house' - Sydney Morning Herald

Target ... the Pulvers outside court on Wednesday. Photo: Wolter Peeters

THE former banker who placed a fake collar bomb around the neck of a Sydney schoolgirl last year completely bungled the attack, entering the wrong Mosman house when the real target was one of her neighbours, a court has heard.

In a dramatic sentencing hearing for Paul Douglas Peters, in which the judge expressed grave doubts about claims the 52-year-old was affected by delusions at the time of the attack, the Crown said the schoolgirl, Madeleine Pulver, 18, had not been his intended victim.

''This offender got the wrong house,'' Margaret Cunneen told the Downing Centre District Court judge Peter Zahra.

''He didn't appreciate the layout of the respective houses.''

Ms Cunneen said Peters had initially come to Mosman because he had intended to extort money from one local who was the beneficiary of a large US trust, known as the James M Cox Trust.

While investigating this, Peters saw a man he knew to be wealthy from his years working as an investment banker and changed his target. The man's name cannot be published for legal reasons.

''The plan from the US was to hunt down this beneficiary of the James M Cox Trust which the offender seems to have had some interest in. He's done some research which led him to Mosman, and having spoken to the man who lives in the battleaxe block that becomes the target.''

But then, she said, Peters simply got the wrong house.

Ms Cunneen said Peters was ''very intolerant to his own failings'' but had been ''fallible and ultimately incompetent in his aims''.

In a bid to hide his error, Peters had ''invented a story'' about being in a deluded state, and taking on the role of one of the characters in a book he was writing.

''But where is this book?'' Ms Cunneen said. ''It hasn't been tendered [in court]. There is nothing in this book that is in any way similar to what occurred.''

Ms Cunneen said the crime was ''an act of urban terrorism'', which could have been successful if Madeleine Pulver had realised that Peters threatened in his extortion note to detonate the bomb if she called anyone.

Earlier, in a strong rebuke of the argument by Peters that his attack was the result of bipolar disorder and drinking, Judge Zahra said it was carried out carefully after significant preparation.

''He went into this place with precision … with his balaclava on and the device in his backpack,'' Judge Zahra said.

''Within a couple of minutes the victim, studying for her exams, was made compliant by what she was confronted with. In my mind he planned this and implemented it with precision.''

The sentencing judge also disputed the claim that the extortion note placed around Ms Pulver's neck, in which Peters falsely stated that he was a ''green beret munitions specialist'', was the bizarre ramblings of a sick man.

But Tim Game, SC, representing Peters, accused the Crown of making ''inflammatory submissions''.

''They were made by the crown prosecutor who knows that his court is full of press and she used language to excite the emotions.''

He said there was ''not a single shred of evidence'' that Peters had been pursuing someone from Mosman over the trust, or that the intended target was the Pulvers's neighbour.

Peters will be sentenced on November 20.