AAP
Paul Douglas Peters had the wrong target when he committed an act of "urban terrorism" by putting a hoax collar bomb around the neck of Sydney teenager Madeleine Pulver, a judge has been told.
After years of "privilege and success", Peters, 52, suffered financial difficulty and decided to seek revenge in an extortion attempt that he believed would recoup his losses, Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, SC, told the District Court in Sydney on Wednesday.
But Ms Cunneen said Peters had gone to the wrong house when he intruded on the Pulver family home in Mosman on August 3, 2011 and cornered 18-year-old Madeleine in her bedroom, before placing a fake collar bomb around her neck.
Peters has pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated breaking and entering and detaining with advantage over the incident, which sparked a 10-hour police operation before the device was confirmed as a fake.
An attached document demanded an unspecified sum of money and said the device would explode if tampered with.
Peters was arrested two weeks later in the home he shared with his ex-wife, Debra Peters, in Kentucky in the US.
The court has heard he claims to have no memory of much of the incident, and psychiatrists say he was suffering from a bipolar disorder at the time.
In her sentencing submissions, Ms Cunneen said Peters travelled from his home in the US to track down the beneficiary of a multi-million-dollar trust, before changing his target.
She said he hung around Mosman for several days and observed a man who lived near the Pulvers whom he recognised through his business dealings in Hong Kong.
"That man becomes the target but the offender simply gets the wrong house," Ms Cunneen said.
"He did make a mistake. He was fallible and on this day he was ultimately incompetent in his aims, so he concocted a story to hide his failures."
Ms Cunneen submitted Peters was not psychotic at the time of the incident and said his loss of memory was a "convenient claim to cover his immense shame and humiliation".
"He knows what he did to this young lady was horrendous," she said.
"It was an act of urban terrorism, an act that struck fear and horror in the heart of every parent and every person in Sydney."
The extortion attempt could have been successful if the Pulver family had been aware of the contents of the letter attached to the device, she added.
"It's highly possible that a family wanting to do anything to spare their daughter may well have co-operated," she said.
The Pulver family continued to experience "lasting anguish" over Peters' actions, she added.
Defence barrister Tim Game, SC, said Ms Cunneen's submissions were "inflammatory" and there was no evidence Peters was looking for a trust beneficiary or that he changed his target.
"The crown should never have put it to you," Mr Game told Judge Peter Zahra.
"It's reckless to describe this as terrorism or urban terrorism."
Mr Game said Judge Zahra should be satisfied Peters was suffering from a mental illness at the time of the incident.
"If you look at his conduct over time, in the context of the highly intelligent person he is, there's no way that was an extortion attempt," he said.
He pointed to Peters' actions in entering a video store and a library in Avoca on the day of the crime, where he accessed the email account listed in a note attached to the device.
"If he had any sense of self preservation, he would appreciate these are places that have CCTV cameras," Mr Game said.
"This is bizarre behaviour for a man such as Mr Peters."
Judge Zahra will sentence Peters on November 20.
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