Enlarge / COPENHAGEN, DENMARK – APRIL 25: Special prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen (R) holds a press briefing after pronouncement of sentence in the case against submarine owner Peter Madsen for the murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall. A unanimous court reached the verdict that Peter Madsen was guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Madsen has lodged an appeal. (credit: Ole Jensen – Corbis/Getty Images)
Peter “Rocket” Madsen, the Danish inventor who sought to put himself into space aboard an amateur-built rocket and built (with the aid of colleagues) his own submarine—the UC3 Nautilus—was found guilty today by a judge and two jurors in the bizarre death of journalist Kim Wall, who disappeared last August while aboard the Nautilus.
Madsen was found guilty on all three of the primary charges filed by Copenhagen prosecutors against him: premeditated murder, aggravated sexual assault, and the desecration of a corpse. He was given a life sentence—a rare verdict in Denmark, and one that on average means 16 years of prison time. Madsen’s attorney, Betina Hald Engmark, said after the sentencing that Madsen will appeal the verdict.
Wall’s dismembered body and decapitated head were recovered weeks after her disappearance, as Madsen repeatedly changed his story about what happened to her. At first he said he had dropped her off the night before, and then he claimed she had died when the submarine’s deck hatch slipped from his fingers and hit her on the head. Finally, after her head was recovered without signs of a head blow, he said that she had died of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide.
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Source: Ars Technica – Danish inventor gets life for murder, rape of journalist on personal submersible