'If you move I can see you I'll be right here'

Madeleine Pulver. Photo / Attila Szilvasi

Yesterday morning Madeleine Pulver left for school relieved, but still confounded, by the news that a 50-year-old businessman had been arrested in the United States, charged with strapping a hoax bomb around her neck.

"It's all very surreal, very surreal," she told waiting reporters.

In Louisville, Kentucky, her accused tormentor, Paul Douglas Peters, told media gathered outside the local District Court: "I hope she's well."

Documents presented to the court gave stark details of the nightmare that confronted the 18-year-old Sydney student as she studied for high school exams in her Mosman bedroom about 2.15pm on August 3.

At her doorway stood a man carrying a bag and a black baseball bat, his face hidden under a blue, yellow and white-striped balaclava with holes for eyes and mouth, wearing a light blue business shirt opened to the chest and sleeves rolled to the elbows, and beige trousers.

From what she could see, the man was in his 50s or 60s, of medium build with "saggy and wrinkly" eyes, grey chest hairs, weathered skin and a "slightly protruding" stomach.

As Madeleine backed away, he told her: "Sit down and no one needs to get hurt."

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'll tell you in a minute," the man replied.

He strapped a black box around her neck with a device similar to a bicycle chain, added a lanyard holding a USB stick and a plastic document, pinned a note to her clothing and moved toward the door, pointing to the hallway.

"Count to 200," he told Madeleine. "I'll be back ... If you move I can see you. I'll be right here."

Extremely frightened, Madeleine sat for a short time, thinking the man was robbing the house, before calling out to him. When there was no reply she contacted the police and her mother on her mobile.

Then she saw the word "explosive" on one of the documents in the plastic sleeve and immediately assumed the box was a bomb. Madeleine rang her father urging him to call the police.

She then panicked when she saw the note warning her against alerting the authorities. By the time she had called her father back to tell him to cancel the call, the police were on their way.

When they arrived Madeleine was crying and hysterical, but calmed as police talked to her. Ten hours later she was free.