COPENHAGEN: The trial of Danish submarine builder Peter Madsen, accused of murdering and mutilating Swedish journalist Kim Wall, resumes Wednesday as prosecutors dispute his account that she died accidentally aboard his vessel.
Madsen, 47, said at the opening of his trial on March 8 that Wall, a 30-year-old freelancer, died when the air pressure suddenly dropped and toxic fumes filled the submarine.
He has admitted to dismembering Wall’s body and throwing it overboard but denies murdering her aboard the sub where she went to interview him on August 10, 2017.
The eccentric and well-known figure in Denmark told the Copenhagen district court on the opening day that the air pressure suddenly dropped inside the vessel where Wall was located while he was up on deck.
An autopsy was unable to determine the cause of death, nor has a motive been established.
But Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen alleged he killed her as part of a sexual fantasy. He said evidence showed Madsen bound Wall around the head, arms and legs before beating her and stabbing her repeatedly in her genital area.
Prosecutors say he then killed her — probably by strangling or slitting her throat — and cut her up with a saw, stuffing her torso, head, arms and legs in separate bags weighed down with metal objects, and dumping them in Koge Bay off Copenhagen.
“I and the defense lawyer will interrogate him all day,” Buch-Jepsen told AFP ahead of Wednesday’s hearing which is to start at 0830 GMT.
Thirty-five experts and witnesses are also expected to speak in the Copenhagen district court to evaluate the credibility of Madsen’s accident scenario and help understand the psychology of the self-taught engineer, described by the prosecution as “a perverted polymorph, and highly sexually deviant.”
Danish submariner’s version of journalist murder disputed
Danish submariner’s version of journalist murder disputed
