Australian police arrest man in US over fake 'collar bomb'
Businessman arrested two weeks after Madeleine Pulver had device attached to her neck for 10 hours in Sydney
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 August 2011 01.29 BST
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Police investigate 'collar bomb' alert in Sydney
Police outside the house of Madeleine Pulver on 4 August. An Australian businessman has been arrested in connection with the hoax collar bomb threat to the teenager. Photograph: Rick Rycroft/AP
An Australian businessman has been arrested in the United States in connection with an attack on a Sydney teenager who had a fake bomb chained to her neck.
The 50-year-old was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday in an operation involving Australian police and the FBI. Police will ask a US court to extradite him to Australia, and plan to charge him with aggravated breaking and entering and kidnapping.
The arrest comes nearly two weeks after 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver was attacked in her home in the wealthy Sydney suburb of Mosman as part of an alleged extortion attempt that Australia's prime minister said resembled "a Hollywood script."
Pulver was home alone when police say a masked man broke into the house in the middle of the day, chained a device that looked like a bomb to her neck and left a note with demands before fleeing.
Bomb technicians, negotiators and detectives rushed to the scene. Neighbouring homes were evacuated, roads were closed and medical and fire crews waited nearby. Pulver spent 10 hours chained to the device before the bomb squad was able to free her. She was not hurt, and the device was later found to contain no explosives.
Police say a note had been attached to the device, but they haven't released details of what it said. The attacker made no additional demands after fleeing, New South Wales police assistant commissioner Dave Hudson said.
Police have said they're treating the case as an extortion attempt.
"There are some links between the suspect and the family, however no direct links," Hudson told reporters.
The man has family in both the US and Australia, and conducts business in both countries, Hudson said. He declined to say whether the suspect had any direct business ties to William Pulver, Madeleine's father.
Hudson said police didn't identify the man as a suspect until he had fled Australia for Kentucky a few days after the attack. Officials are still working to determine a motive, he said.
"It's a fairly detailed chain of circumstantial evidence which has led us to making the arrest ... we believe it's fairly compelling," Hudson said.
Police are not searching for any other offenders in connection with the attack, Hudson said.
The Pulvers were relieved to hear of the arrest. William Pulver described his daughter as "a bright, happy young woman who for reasons we still don't understand had her life turned upside down going through this dreadful experience."
"These past two weeks have been a very difficult time for us and we are hopeful that this development marks the beginning of the end of this traumatic ordeal for our family," he told reporters in Sydney, his wife Belinda at his side.
"This has been a baffling and frightening experience. It has tested us all," he said.
