Peter Madsen Finally Admits He Killed Kim Wall

Danish inventor has previously maintained journalist's death was an accident
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 9, 2020 3:25 PM CDT
Journalist Gets Confession to Kim Wall's Murder
This April 30, 2008 file photo shows a submarine and its owner Peter Madsen.   (Niels Hougaard/Ritzau via AP, File)

A Danish court determined Peter Madsen killed Swedish journalist Kim Wall in August 2017. Now Madsen has verified that fact. The Guardian reports the 49-year-old has for the first time admitted killed Wall, who he long maintained had died accidentally on the submarine he built. The confession came in a TV documentary released Wednesday called the Secret Recordings with Peter Madsen, which was compiled from 20 hours of recorded conversation with Madsen from prison. The BBC reports the calls were recorded without Madsen's knowledge, but that he later gave permission for the conversations to be used. When journalist Kristian Linnemann asks Madsen if he killed Wall, he said this: "Yes. It’s my fault she died, and it’s my fault because I committed the crime. It’s all my fault ... There is only one who is guilty, and that is me."

But the Copenhagen Post reports he offers no clear explanation. It quotes him as saying Wall "hits some things," which it observes could mean everything from hitting an instrument in a way that could have endangered them to hitting a nerve during their conversation. Linnemann responds with this: "So this is what triggered you, and this is the moment when everything goes wrong. Instead of hitting yourself, you end up killing her?" He answers yes. Madsen was sentenced to life in prison in 2018. The judge said there was "clear evidence that the accused has shown an interest in killing and dismembering people." (More Peter Madsen stories.)

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