PAUL Douglas Peters has no memory of attaching a fake collar bomb to a Sydney teenager's neck and now believes his action was "bizarre and stupid", a court has heard.
In the months before he confronted Madeleine Pulver on August 3 last year, Peters was suffering from "major depression" and had taken on the role of a character in a book he was writing, forensic psychiatrist Dr Bruce Westmore told a sentence hearing at the District Court in Sydney on Friday.
Peters, once an affluent banker, has pleaded guilty to breaking into the Pulver family home and attaching a fake collar bomb to Ms Pulver's neck after cornering her in her bedroom.
An attached document demanded an unspecified sum of money and said the device would explode if tampered with.
The incident sparked a 10-hour police operation before the device was confirmed to be fake.
Peters was arrested in the Kentucky home he had shared with his ex-wife, Debra Peters, in the US a couple of weeks later on August 15.Ms Peters, who flew from the US for the hearing, cried as she described how Peters became "disconnected" in the lead-up to their marital breakdown in 2007.
But Ms Peters described him as her "partner in life", saying they had been on the verge of reconciling in May 2011 before Peters' behaviour worsened.
Peters wiped his eyes with a handkerchief as he listened to his former wife.
The court heard Peters had been "obsessed" with a book he was writing and spent hours working on it in his basement.
"I didn't want to go back to marriage with Paul and have the issues of anger and the mood swings," Ms Peters said, adding he had been drinking heavily.
"His moods were manic. One minute he'd be happy, the next he would be upset. His personality was all over the place."
As a result, Peters moved to Australia where Dr Westmore said he became "increasingly isolated".
Dr Westmore said Peters had told him his last memory of the collar bomb event was walking up the steps of the Pulver home.
"He said he did not know the victim or her family. He didn't remember the events," Dr Westmore said.
After he was prescribed medication in custody, there was a "significant and dramatic change" in Peters' behaviour, Dr Westmore said.
"I noted he appeared to express remorse," he said.
"He thought it was bizarre and stupid. He talked about a lot of his behaviour as being absurd."
Dr Westmore said he believed Peters "took on the role" of the main character of the book he was writing, a character Ms Peters described as "dark".
But crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, SC, noted the incident was "planned in a complex fashion", which included buying items such as an aluminium baseball bat and balaclava.
"Isn't his account of disassociation, becoming a character in a book, just a means for him to come up with a creative story to avoid admitting he was trying to extort money?" Ms Cunneen said.
"That's possible, yes," Dr Westmore replied.
Outside court, Ms Pulver's parents, Bill and Belinda Pulver, said the hearing was the first time they had come face to face with Peters.
"It all feels pretty surreal. We still have no idea why he chose Maddie, how he ended up in our house," Mr Pulver said.
Ms Pulver, who did not attend the hearing, was doing "okay", he added.
"I think it's fair to say the anniversary of the event combined with the sentence hearing was a pretty traumatic process to go through."
Judge Peter Zahra adjourned the hearing until October 31.
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