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Danish sub killer verdict postponed as judge collapses
COPENHAGEN, Sept 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A Danish court on Friday postponed
its verdict on an appeal by Peter Madsen, who is seeking a reduced sentence
for the 2017 murder of a Swedish journalist aboard his homemade submarine,
after a judge collapsed in the courtroom.
The lay judge, one of two serving along with three professional judges,
fell ill shortly after the prosecutor began presenting his final arguments in
the Copenhagen appeals court.
The judge, whose identity was not disclosed, was treated by paramedics
and whisked away by ambulance. The court said later his life was not in
danger.
The court had been due to present its verdict on Madsen’s sentence later
Friday. Proceedings were cancelled for the day and it was not immediately
known when the trial would resume.
Madsen, 47, appealed his life sentence but not the guilty verdict handed
down by the Copenhagen district court on April 25 for the murder of 30-year-
old Swedish journalist Kim Wall, chopping up her corpse and throwing her body
parts into the sea last year.
He claims her death was an accident.
In the appeals trial, which opened on September 5, Madsen’s lawyer Betina
Hald Engmark argued the life sentence was “disproportionate”.
In Danish jurisprudence, life sentences are rarely handed down for a
single killing. In the past 10 years, only three people have received such
sentences.
Prosecutor Kristian Kirk meanwhile insisted the sentence was justified,
given the grisly nature of the murder and Madsen’s meticulous planning.
“We are talking about exceptional brutality,” Kirk told the court Friday
before the proceedings were suspended.
“This was not a spontaneous act. It had been planned for a while, and
the only thing that was missing was a victim,” he said.
In the lower court trial, it emerged that Madsen had contacted several
women to invite them out on his submarine before he finally called Wall.
On August 10, 2017, the award-winning reporter boarded the submarine with
the eccentric and self-taught engineer — a minor celebrity in Denmark — to
interview him for an article she was writing.
Wall’s boyfriend reported her missing when she failed to return home
that night.
Her dismembered body parts were later found on the seabed, weighted down
in plastic bags.
– ‘Loving psychopath’ –
Madsen changed his version of events several times, but ultimately told
the lower court that Wall died when the air pressure suddenly dropped and
toxic fumes filled his vessel while he was up on deck.
An autopsy report concluded that she probably died as a result of
suffocation or having her throat slit, but the decomposed state of her body
meant examiners could not determine an exact cause of death.
Fourteen stab wounds and piercings were also found in and around her
genital area.
Madsen had argued that he stabbed her because he wanted to prevent gases
from building up inside her torso that would prevent it from sinking to the
seabed.
Psychiatric experts who evaluated Madsen — who described himself to
friends as “a psychopath, but a loving one” — found him to be “a
pathological liar” who poses “a danger to others” and who was likely to be a
repeat offender.
The grisly case made headlines worldwide, all the more shocking as it
took place in one of the safest countries in the world.
A life sentence in Denmark averages around 16 years. Only 25 inmates in
Denmark are currently serving life sentences.
After 12 years behind bars, an inmate with a life sentence can ask to be
paroled, but the justice system can decide to keep him or her behind bars as
long as he or she is considered a danger to society.
BSS/AFP/RY/1619 hrs