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 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. Officials have not released his name. 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. Australia United States guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 15, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.