Danish submarine owner and inventor Peter Madsen (Picture Getty)

The Danish inventor of a home-made submarine has admitted that a Swedish journalist died on board – but claims she died by accident.

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Peter Madsen said 30-year-old Kim Wall died by accident – but has so far failed to offer an explanation of how she lost her head and limbs.

Police say her head, arms and legs had been deliberately cut off and have not been found.

Madsen said, ‘I lose my foothold and the hatch shuts. Kim had been severely hurt and was laying with an intense bleeding. There was a pool of blood where she had landed.’


He said he tried to bury her at sea and intended to take his own life inside the submarine.

Allegedly Swedish journalist Kim Wall stands next to a man in the tower of the private submarine “UC3 Nautilus” AFP Getty

Judge Anette Burko of Copenhagen District Court, said Madsen’s account was ‘not reasonable.’



The charges against Madsen have been upgraded to manslaughter – the equivalent of murder in Danish law.

It could mean a sentence of five years to life in prison for Madsen, if found guilty.

The court on Tuesday ordered a psychiatric evaluation and that Madsen be kept in custody for four weeks.

Kim Wall Getty AFP

In its preliminary investigation, the court had ordered Madsen detained until Tuesday on the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Madsen said Wall’s death was an accident.

A unit of the Swedish Sea Rescue Society searches for the missing swedish journalist Kim Wal AFP/Getty

Wall, a 30-year-old freelance journalist who was researching a story on Madsen, went missing after he took her out to sea in his 17-metre (56-foot) submarine on August 10.

In court, Madsen denied having amputated her limbs and said he dropped her ‘whole’ body into the water, several hours after her death, after having a sleep because he was ‘tired and exhausted’.

He admitted that he wanted to ‘bury her at sea’ by attaching metal to the body in order for it to sink.

‘I had no contact with the body and didn’t want a dead body in my submarine,’ Madsen told the court. ‘I put a rope around her feet to drag her out of the hatch,’ he said, adding that he was crying during this operation.