Danish submarine inventor admits to dismembering journalist Kim Wall
The Danish submarine inventor on trial over the murder of Kim Wall has admitted the “horrible” dismembering of the Swedish journalist using “what was around”.
Peter Madsen is accused of torturing and murdering the 30-year-old, before throwing her body parts into the sea during a submarine trip in August last year. Madsen, who denies killing Wall, claims she died accidentally inside his submarine while he was on deck. He initially told authorities he dropped her off on a
Copenhagen island several hours after she boarded to interview the inventor.
Madsen described her dismembering as an “insane situation” during questioning by a prosecutor at Copenhagen Crown Court. He said the incident occurred in the bathroom on board his submarine. “It’s something so horrible that I do not want to go into detail,” he told the court. “I will just say that it was horrible.”
Asked about stab wounds on Wall’s body, Madsen claimed they were inflicted randomly and that there were no sexual motives behind it, according to state broadcaster DR Nyheder. During yesterday’s trial, the court was shown two animated videos from Madsen’s hard drive which showed women being decapitated. A prosecutor also asked the defendant about a film he allegedly saw on the night leading up to Wall’s death, in which a woman is shown having her throat slit. The 54-second clip was called “Beheading girl”.
Wall’s torso was found on a southern Copenhagen shoreline in late August. Her head, legs and clothes were discovered in bags at sea in October and November, along with heavy metal objects designed to take them to the ocean floor.
Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen said a psychiatric report of the 47-year-old found him to be an intelligent man “with psychopathic tendencies”, who has “no empathy or feelings of guilt”. Detectives found videos and texts about killing women on Madsen’s laptop and an external hard drive. Mr Buch-Jepsen has previously showed the court underpants and tights – both damaged – and pieces of hair.
Madsen’s submarine was submerged for several hours on the night when Wall disappeared. It was invisible to radar and did not immediately respond to attempts to make radio contact, the court was told. When reached over radio, Madsen said he had let Wall off on Refshale Island several hours into the trip. Madsen also said over the radio there were no injured persons on board, only technical problems. Shortly after, Madsen reported “man overboard” over the radio. He was picked up alone.
After he was arrested on land, forensic experts found dried blood on Madsen’s nose, “blood that eventually was proven to belong to Kim Wall”, Mr Buch-Jepsen said. The prosecution claims Wall’s murder was premeditated because Madsen brought along tools he normally did not take when sailing.
The trial is due to end on 25 April.