TV host found not guilty after parcel bomb sent to Simone Cheung

A former TV presenter on the run for almost 20 years has been cleared of sending a parcel bomb to a Sydney glamour model that exploded in her boyfriend’s face. Roberto de Heredia was extradited from Europe in 2016 to stand trial over the explosion in which Brett Boyd was severely injured.

A former TV presenter on the run for almost 20 years has been cleared of sending a parcel bomb to a Sydney glamour model that exploded in her boyfriend’s face.

Roberto de Heredia was extradited from Europe in 2016 to stand trial over the explosion in which Brett Boyd was severely injured.

Mr Boyd suffered head trauma and lost an eye and a thumb when he picked up a package outside his Belrose home on June 15, 1998.

Former Penthouse Pet Simone Cheung.

Not guilty: Roberto de Heredia

The package was addressed to his girlfriend Simone Cheung, a former Penthouse pet and escort, and the bomb was so powerful it ripped holes in the house’s carport.

Mr Boyd took his own life in 2008.

Mr Boyd’s friend de Heredia was charged with the bombing three months later but left the country for Bali and then Spain using a mate’s passport days before his trial was due to get underway in 1999.

The package was addressed to Simone Cheung, a former Penthouse Pet.

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De Heredia changed his identity while living in Spain and remained on the run until NSW Police was able to track him down and he was arrested at London’s Gatwick Airport.

During de Heredia’s trial in the NSW District Court, his lawyer Grant Brady SC said the former shopping channel presenter fled the country in fear for his life after Mr Boyd was arrested outside Randwick police station with a loaded machine gun and pistol waiting for de Heredia to be released on bail.

Several weeks after this de Heredia was shot twice in the shoulder.

At the time of the bombing, de Heredia was in a relationship with popular TV personality Rozz Switzer-Hewson.

Aa parcel bomb was sent to the home of Simone Cheung.

She told the court that in 1998 she was afraid of him and did not tell police everything she knew but later gave a new statement.

In it she detailed how she lied about his whereabouts on the night of the bombing, giving him an alibi.

On June 15 he left her Pyrmont apartment about six or seven in the evening.

“When he came back he was visibly upset, distressed, crying, and he made mention of saying there’d be some big news tomorrow,” Switzer-Hewson said.

Roberto de Heredia was found not guilty of attempted murder.

During a month-long trial the court heard de Heredia’s DNA was found on stamps used on the parcel bomb as well as his fingerprints on an Australia Post note found at the scene.

Police claimed he was angry about an outstanding $80,000 debt owed by Mr Boyd to him and another friend, Leroy Stolzenhein.

Brett Boyd who was seriously injured after opening letter bomb at his Belrose home. Picture: Milan Scepanovic

The money was supposedly to start up an internet sex business with Ms Cheung.

De Heredia was found not guilty of the attempted murder and grievous bodily harm of Mr Boyd.

A 2017 trial had resulted in a hung jury.

It is expected de Heredia will be deported to England as soon as possible.