Danish submarine owner claims journalist Kim Wall died when she was hit by hatch cover

Danish artist and inventor Peter Madsen has told a court that he disposed of the body of journalist Kim Wall in a state of “suicidal psychosis”, after a heavy hatch to the command tower in his home-built submarine UC3 Nautilus dropped onto her head and killed her.

In his first public statement since Wall's torso was discovered on August 21, Madsen denied cutting off the 30-year-old’s head, arms and legs, but admitted to weighing down her body by tying weights around her waist.

Asked why he had not contacted the authorities as soon as the accident happened, he claimed that he had not been thinking rationally.

“I’m in a suicidal psychosis and I’m not planning to do anything else in this world other than to go down and sink the Nautilus,” Madsen said after appearing in court wearing a green boiler suit and Converse boots.

“The world, which I existed in, which is my life and everything I am, that is in the same state as Kim. It dies. I have nothing left and there’s nothing more I have to do. So everything that’s happening loses its meaning.”

Prosecutor Jacob Buch-Jepsen said that there were inconsistencies in Madsen’s story, telling the court that police had found blood and a pair of tights at the spot where Madsen said Wall had fallen, hair and blood in the toilet of the submarine, and a pair of knickers in the engine room.

The prosecution hinted at the possibility that Wall died in a sex crime.

Madsen, who is married, insisted there was no sexual relationship between him and Wall, and their contacts had been purely professional.

The self-taught engineer told the court he and his wife have an open marriage.

The prosecution on Tuesday cited witnesses who claimed Madsen watched beheading videos, practiced asphyxiation sex and was fascinated by death and sex

Crowds of journalists, most from Denmark and Wall’s home country of Sweden, but also from France, England, Norway and Japan, gathered at Copenhagen District Court to hear Madsen’s statement, despite a continued call from Mr Buch-Jepsen for it to be held behind closed doors.

Mr Buch-Jepsen argued that as Wall’s head, arms and legs had yet to be found, and as hundreds of people had come forward as potential witnesses, there were still too many uncertainties for details of the case to be made public.

But after representations from Madsen’s defence lawyer Betina Hald Engberg and the media, Judge Annette Burkø ruled that the the hearing be held in open court.

Madsen told the court that after Wall’s head was hit by the 70kg hatch, she had fallen down the shaft leading up to the command tower of his homebuilt submarine and died less than a minute afterwards.

“If I had been able to hold my footing, we would not be sitting here today. The latch was moving and I could not hold onto it,” said Madsen. “That's why we are here today.”

Wall’s torso was discovered with its head, arms and legs removed, floating off the coast of a Copenhagen suburb on August 21, ten days after the Swedish journalist had set off with Madsen in his submarine.

The journalist was from Trelleborg in nearby southern Sweden but had recently been living in New York. She had been planning to write a magazine feature on Madsen, an artist. 

Rescuers found Madsen standing in the tower of the sunken Nautilus on the same day that Wall’s boyfriend raised the alarm about her disappearance.

He claimed to have dropped her off on an island in Copenhagen’s harbour on Thursday evening, although he later told police that he had “buried Wall at sea” after she died on board. Madsen initially claimed his submarine had suffered a problem with a ballast tank that “turned into a major issue”.

The forensic investigation showed that the submarine had been deliberately scuttled.

In the court, Madsen claimed that he had lied about Wall's disappearance in order to buy time to say goodbye to his wife.

"I just wanted to have five minutes to say goodbye," he said.