Kim Wall trial – has Peter Madsen been found guilty of her murder and where was the missing journalist’s torso found?

A DANISH inventor has been found guilty of the murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on his homemade submarine last August.

Peter Madsen has been jailed for life for the gruesome killing that shocked an entire nation. Here’s all you need to know on the case…

Who was Kim Wall?

Kim Wall, 30, was a journalist from Sweden who went missing on August 10, 2017.

She was last seen on a homemade submarine belonging to Danish inventor Peter Madsen, which she embarked at the Bay of Køge, Denmark.

A respected freelance reporter, Kim attended the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and had spent time in New York and China writing for several international publications.

She was researching a feature on Madsen who built the 40-tonne submarine after raising money through online crowdfunding in 2008.

Who is Peter Madsen?

Peter Madsen is the skipper of the UC3 Nautilus, the private submarine he designed and built in 2008.

The Dane initially owned it in partnership with a group of volunteers who helped maintain it, but took full control after a dispute in 2015.

Charges against the 47-year-old include premeditated murder, indecent handling of a corpse and – citing stab wounds around her genitals – “sexual relations other than intercourse of a dangerous nature”.

Born in 1971, Madsen grew up in the small town of Saeby, 100km west of Copenhagen.

His parents divorced when he was six and Madsen went to live with his father, whom he has described as authoritarian and violent.

Aged 15, he started his first company, Danish Space Academy, to buy spare parts to build a rocket.

He studied engineering, but quit the course once he thought he knew enough to build submarines and rockets.

In 2008, he launched the Nautilus, the biggest privately made submarine whose ownership was later transferred to him after a row with former colleagues.

Around the same time, he developed his idea for private space travel.

In June 2011, he successfully launched a rocket from a floating platform on the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm.

What happened at his trial?

The trial over Kim Wall’s grisly death began on March 8 in Copenhagen, seven months after her mutilated torso washed ashore in the south-west of Amager.

The 11-day trial was spread over seven weeks.

Masden was found guilty of premeditated murder, aggravated sexual assault and desecrating a corpse on April 25, 2018.

He was sentenced to life in prison for the gruesome murder that shocked Denmark.

A life sentence in Denmark generally is around 16 years long, and is rarely handed down for the murder of a single person.

However, taking into account the brutality of the case, prosecutors have asked the judge to consider “safe custody”, a legal alternative which would keep Madsen behind bars indefinitely as long as he is deemed dangerous.

What happened to Kim Wall on Peter Madsen’s submarine?

According to prosecutors, Madsen invited Ms Wall on to his miniature submarine so that he could fulfil the most vile and violent of sexual fantasies.

They allege he brought a saw, knife and sharpened screwdrivers to the vessel where he invited Ms Wall to conduct an interview.

Prosecutors also argue that Madsen strangled or beheaded his victim after torturing her.

An indictment claims he stabbed her several times, cutting off her head and limbs before throwing her body parts into the sea.

Madsen admitted dismembering his victim in the bathroom of the vessel after she died accidentally on board but refused to go into detail because it was “so horrible”.

He claims he panicked and just wanted to remove all traces of her after her death.

Madsen also claims that multiple stab wounds he made with a 50cm screwdriver were not motivated by erotic or perverse fantasies.

He denied the murder and sexual assault charges against him.

His claim that Ms Wall’s death was accidental was dismissed by the court.

What happened on the day Kim Wall disappeared?

Ms Wall met Madsen at his Copenhagen submarine dock at around 7pm on Thursday, 10 August, 2017, where she was pictured boarding the Nautilus and smiling.

However, her boyfriend reported her missing at 2.30am the following morning after she failed to return home.

A rescue operation was mounted over fears the sub, which was not equipped with tracking devices, may have got into difficulty in the short channel between Copenhagen and Sweden.

A merchant ship claimed to have come within 30 metres of the sub at midnight just miles from where it had set off, and a lighthouse had a confirmed sighting of the sub at 10.30am.

Half an hour later at 11am the submarine sank, which police said was “allegedly a consequence of a deliberate act”.

Where was the missing journalist’s torso found?

A headless and limbless torso was spotted by a member of the public in Danish waters near Copenhagen on Monday, August 21, 2017.

Lead investigator Jens Moller Jensen said at the time: “We have recovered the body … It is the torso of a woman. An inquest will be conducted.”

On August 23, it was confirmed that the body belonged to Kim Wall.

Officers also said the arms, legs and head had been deliberately cut off.

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