Danish engineer gets life term for Swedish journalist's murder

Copenhagen, April 25 (IANS) Danish inventor Peter Madsen was on Wednesday sentenced to life in prison without parole for the mutilation and murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on his submarine.

Peter Madsen, 47, was found guilty of the charges of premeditated murder, sexual assault and desecrating the corpse of Wall, who was last seen boarding his UC3 Nautilus submarine in Copenhagen on August 10 to interview him for an article, CNN reported.

Wall was declared missing on August 11. Later, her torso washed up on an island near Copenhagen on August 21. Her head and legs were found weeks later. 

After his arrest, Madsen gave differing accounts of what had happened on board his submarine. He 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.

"There is clear evidence that the accused has shown an interest in killing and dismembering people," said Judge Anette Burkoe while announcing the verdict. Burkoe, described the crime as "a cynical and planned sexual murder of a severe brutal nature against a random woman".

The morning after Wall's disappearance, Madsen's self-engineered submarine sunk in suspicious circumstances. It later turned out that he had scuttled the vessel. 

During the opening session of his trial in March, prosecutors said there was a suspicion that Madsen had "psychopathic tendencies" after investigators discovered films on his computer showing women being tortured and mutilated.

Wall graduated from Columbia University and the London School of Economics. At the time of her death, the journalist's work had appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian and Time magazine, among other publications.