Maddie Pulver shocked to win courage award after bomb hoax ordeal

FAKE collar bomb victim Maddie Pulver has told of her “surprise” at landing a gong for the steely courage she showed while forced to sit with the device around her neck for a terrifying 10 hours.

Madeleine Pulver says she is shocked after receiving a bravery award. Source: Facebook

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FAKE collar bomb victim Maddie Pulver has told of her “surprise” at landing a gong for the steely courage she showed while forced to sit with the device around her neck for a terrifying 10 hours.

Ms Pulver was a schoolgirl at the time a balaclava-clad intruder broke into her family home in Sydney’s Mosman and tied a black metal box around her neck with a bike chain in an audacious extortion attempt six years ago.

Attached was an extortion note claiming the box contained sophisticated plastic explosives and threatening Ms Pulver and her family with a “tragically avoidable explosion” if they failed to send “funds” to a supplied email address.

The Pulver family were left traumatised by the incident six years ago.

She was left highly traumatised and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder but has rebuilt her life after studying abroad and is now an account director for top marketing firm Havas Sydney.

Today she claimed a Group Bravery Citation award in the latest round of Australian Bravery Decorations.

Constable Karen Lowden, who stayed with her for the first crucial three hours amid heightened fears the contraption was a real bomb, collected a Star of Courage gong.

In a rare interview, a modest Ms Pulver, now 24, told the Daily Telegraph, “I’ve never liked expanding (about what happened) but in the case of these awards, Karen and the NSW Police should be the point of focus.

Bomb hoax victim Madeleine Pulver leaving her Mosman home shortly after the incident.

Madeleine Pulver has rebuilt her life and is now an account director.

“To be honest I was so surprised to hear that I was being considered for the award but I am extremely grateful,” she said.

“I am so pleased that Karen and all the people involved from the NSW Police Force are being recognised because they were truly extraordinary with the support they gave me and my family on the night.”

Ms Pulver, 18 at the time, was studying at home alone in August 2011 when Paul Douglas Peters broke in wearing a rainbow-striped ski mask and wielding a baseball bat.

He hung a bomb-like device around her neck and pinned a ransom note to her chest warning the family not to contact police “or I’ll detonate”.

It took a bomb squad 10 hours to remove the device, which contained no explosives.

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Peters, then 52, failed to convince the judge his crime was the result of a psychological meltdown triggered by the breakdown of his marriage and a failing career.

Instead, the judge said, the once-successful businessman and father-of-three had shown no remorse, lied to police and was predominantly motivated by money.

After attaching the device to the teen, Peters fled to the US, but police used an email address he left on the ransom note to track him down.

Authorities arrested him two weeks later at his ex-wife’s home in Louisville, Kentucky, and extradited him to Australia.

He pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offence and is currently serving a 13-year jail sentence.