Inventor to appeal sub killing decision
DENMARK: A Danish inventor has been jailed for life for the premeditated murder and sexual assault of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on his homemade submarine.
Peter Madsen, 47, had confessed to cutting up the 30-year-old’s body and throwing her remains overboard, but claimed her death was accidental.
Wall, a freelance reporter, had set off with the self-titled ‘‘inventrepreneur’’ to interview him on his vessel, having planned a feature on him for a magazine.
During the 12-day trial, special prosecutor Jakob BuchJepsen accused Madsen of attempting to carry out ‘‘the perfect crime’’.
He said Madsen killed Wall as part of a macabre sexual fantasy, showing the court video footage, found on the inventor’s computer, of women being tortured, beheaded, impaled and hanged.
‘‘He committed a cynical, planned murder of a particularly brutal nature,’’ the judge said as she read out the guilty verdict, adding that Madsen ‘‘dismembered the body in order to hide the evidence of murder.’’
A black-clad Madsen looked shaken by yesterday’s verdict and swiftly signalled he would appeal. A life sentence in Denmark typically lasts about 16 years and he will be only the 25th person serving one there.
On the final day of evidence, Madsen, who had described himself to friends as ‘‘a psychopath but a loving one’’, told the court: ‘‘I’m really, really sorry for what happened.’’ – Telegraph Group