An Australian businessman who chained a fake bomb to a teenager's neck was so disturbed he may not have realised why he was doing it, his ex-wife has said.
Paul Douglas Peters had been drinking heavily and exhibiting wild mood swings in the years before he broke into the home of 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver last year, Deborah Peters said.
He faces up to 20 years in prison for attacking the teenager while she was alone in her family's Sydney mansion.
It took a bomb squad 10 hours to remove the device, which contained no explosives. Madeleine was unharmed.
Peters, 51, who wore a rainbow-striped ski mask and wielded a baseball bat in the attack, left a ransom note with an email address that helped authorities track him down. He later pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter and a serious indictable offence.
Ms Peters wept as she told a sentencing hearing how her then-husband's behaviour started to change in 2000.
"Paul started to disconnect," she told the court.
Police at the scene of the attack in Sydney "One minute he'd be OK - the next minute he'd be upset or angry."
The mood swings coincided with his attempt to write a book, she said. The novel became a story about a villain who kidnapped someone and addicted the victim to drugs.
Peters would spend hours in the basement writing, she said, and he started to drink up to two bottles of wine and two large gin and tonics with dinner every night.
She divorced him five years ago after he refused to get help.
Early last year they tried to reconcile, but split again after his erratic behaviour returned.
Psychiatrist Bruce Westmore, for the defence, said Peters was "angry and revengeful" over his failed relationship and separation from his three daughters and may have tried to become the vengeful character in his novel.
Mr Westmore said he believes Peters suffers from depression, but was not psychotic and had an awareness of what he was doing at the time of the crime.
Since his arrest, Peters has told the psychiatrist he has no memory of the attack and described his own actions as "bizarre".
But Peters is so complex an exact diagnosis is difficult, Mr Westmore said, adding: "I've never met anyone like Mr Peters before."
Peters came face to face with his victim's father, Bill Pulver, for the first time at the hearing.
Afterwards, Mr Pulver said he still believed the attack was all about money. The hearing was adjourned until October 31.
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