COPENHAGEN: A Copenhagen court on Wednesday found Danish inventor Peter Madsen guilty of the premeditated murder and sexual assault of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on his homemade submarine last year, handing him a life sentence. A life sentence in Denmark averages around 16 years.

Madsen, 47, had admitted chopping up the 30-year-old’s body and throwing her remains overboard in waters off Copenhagen on the night of August 10, 2017, but claimed her death was accidental.

Defence lawyer Betina Hald Engmark said afterwards Madsen was “shocked” by the verdict, and plans to appeal.

Wall, a freelance reporter, had set off with the eccentric, self-titled “inventrepreneur” on his vessel on the evening of August 10 to interview him.

Reported missing by her boyfriend, Wall’s remains were retrieved from waters off Copenhagen in the weeks following her death.

During the trial, prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen argued that Madsen killed Wall as part of a macabre sexual fantasy, showing the court videos found on Madsen’s computer of women being tortured, beheaded, impaled, and hanged.

Madsen confessed to stuffing the journalist’s head, arms and legs into plastic bags, weighing them down with metal pipes before tossing them into the sea.

But after changing his version of events several times, he testified that she died when the air pressure suddenly dropped and toxic fumes filled his vessel as he was up on deck.

Despite the testimony of many experts, the lack of tangible evidence in the case and the decomposed state of Wall’s remains made it impossible to determine an exact cause of death. An autopsy report concluded she probably died as a result of suffocation or having her throat slit. Fourteen stab wounds and piercings were also found in and around her genital area.

The court found the incriminating circumstances were enough to find Madsen guilty, citing the gruesome videos he watched, the fact that he brought a saw, plastic strips and a sharpened screwdriver on board just before the voyage, and the fact that he invited three other women onto the vessel around the same time who all turned him down.

The New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement welcoming Wednesday’s verdict.

“This gruesome crime and the tragic loss of Kim Wall is a reminder that freelance and women journalists in particular can be exposed to great risk, even when they least expect it,” it said.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2018