Danish Inventor Peter Madsen Given Life Sentence For Gory Murder Of Journalist

Peter Madsen

Danish inventor Peter Madsen has been found guilty of the mutilation and murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, and sentenced to life in prison.

Madsen was also found guilty of the indecent handling of a corpse and “sexual relations other than intercourse of a particularly dangerous nature,” evidenced by stab wounds inside and outside Wall’s genital area.

During the sentencing at a court in Copenhagen on Wednesday, the judge Anette Burkoe described the crime as “a cynical and planned sexual murder of a severe brutal nature against a random women.”

Wall, a promising 30-year-old journalist, was last seen boarding Madsen’s self-built submarine in Copenhagen on August 10 last year when she had planned to interview him for an upcoming article.

Instead she disappeared, her torso washed up on August 21 on an island near Copenhagen. Her head and legs were found weeks later.

Madsen consistently denied charges of murder and sexual assault, claiming Wall died by accident from carbon dioxide poisoning, although he admitted to dismembering her body and tossing it into the sea in a state of panic.

Asked on Monday if he wanted to make a last statement before the jury went into deliberation, he said, “If anything, I am sorry about what happened.” His attorney announced Wednesday that Madsen would be appealing the sentence.

The prosecutor had asked for Madsen to be sentenced to life in prison or placed in “forvaring” — a type of preventive custody with no time limit for prisoners believed to pose a significant danger to others.

Both are considered the harshest penalties in Danish law.

The question of forvaring or a life sentence arose based on Madsen’s mental examination, which concluded that he remains dangerous, has psychotic traits, appears unfeeling and untrustworthy, suffers from lack of empathy and is highly sexually deviant.





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