Reporter found guilty of kidnapping faces 25 year prison spell

The former reporter for the American fashion paper, Women’s Wear Daily, who was so angry about the fashion industry that he ruminated about killing Anna Wintour, the British editor of Vogue, has been found guilty of kidnapping, holding captive and terrorising an American woman journalist.

Peter Braunstein, who dressed up as a fireman and set off a smoke bomb outside the apartment of his victim, a 36-year-old fashion writer, now faces 25 years in prison.

In his defence, lawyers argued that Braunstein was mentally unstable – and even cited passages from his diary in which he wrote: ‘I’m going to kill Annna Wintour, Why? – because I feel like it”.

The jury at his trial in New York did not buy the argument and deliberated for just four hours before returning a verdict of guilty.

Throughout the three-week long trial Braunstein, who is 43, sat stone faced and in what appeared to be a stupor. He showed no emotion when the jury returned its verdict.

The prosecution charged that Barunstein chose Halloween to dress up as a fireman, wearing a helmet and visor to trick his former colleague to let him inside her apartment. There he knocked her out with chloroform, stripped her, tied her to a bed with a parachute cord and sexually molested her for 13 hours.

He said he was angry with Anna Wintour because he was only granted only one ticket to Vogue’s annual fashion show.