Danish inventor tortured journalist before killing her: prosecutors

Danish inventor Peter Madsen tied up and tortured Swedish journalist Kim Wall before killing and dismembering her on board his homemade submarine last year, the indictment obtained by AFP on Wednesday showed. In a grisly case that shocked the public, the remains of 30-year-old Wall were found in plastic bags over a series of weeks in Koge Bay, after she vanished while interviewing Madsen on his submarine on August 10. Madsen, who was arrested and detained shortly after Wall's disappearance, has admitted cutting up her body and dumping it at sea but has denied intentionally killing her or having any sexual relations with her. He was formally charged on January 16 with premeditated murder, desecration of a corpse, and sexual relations other than intercourse, among other things. According to the charge sheet, Madsen, 47, tied Wall up by the head, arms and legs before beating and "stabbing and cutting her", including 14 stab wounds and holes in her genital area. He then proceeded to kill her and dismember her torso, head, and legs, placing them in separate bags weighed down with metal objects, and dumping them into Koge Bay off Copenhagen. The cause of death has not been established, but investigators believe he either strangled her or cut her throat. He has insisted her death was an accident, but has repeatedly changed his version of events. Prosecutors, who have previously said they believe Madsen killed Wall as part of a sexual fantasy, did not mention a motive in the charge sheet. They will argue the murder was premeditated because Madsen "brought a saw, knife, sharpened screwdriver, straps, strips and pipes" on board. Investigators said earlier they had found a hard disk in Madsen's workshop that contained fetish films in which women were tortured, decapitated and burned alive. His trial will begin on March 8, and the verdict is expected on April 25. Prosecutors have called for a life sentence, which in Denmark averages 16 to 17 years before parole according to national statistics, though some convicts have been locked up much longer. Wall worked as a freelance journalist based in New York and China, and her articles were published in The Guardian, The New York Times and others. At the time of her disappearance, she was believed to be working on a feature story about Madsen, an eccentric self-taught engineer who is a well-known figure in Denmark.