Peter Madsen: Danish submarine killer sentenced to 21 months for prison escape

Images from the escape showed Peter Madsen sitting on the grass against a fence with his hands behind his back as police aimed guns at him from a distance.
Images from the escape showed Peter Madsen sitting on the grass against a fence with his hands behind his back as police aimed guns at him from a distance. Copyright NILS MEILVANG / RITZAU SCANPIX / AFP
Copyright NILS MEILVANG / RITZAU SCANPIX / AFP
By Euronews
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Peter Madsen briefly escaped from a Copenhagen prison in October after threatening staff and police with a fake gun and explosives.

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A Danish man convicted of torturing and murdering a Swedish journalist has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for his attempted prison escape last year.

Peter Madsen was serving a life sentence for killing Kim Wall on his homemade submarine in 2017.

Last October, he briefly escaped from Herstedvester prison in suburban Copenhagen after threatening prison staff and police with a fake gun and false explosives he had made in jail.

He was quickly apprehended around 500 metres from the facility after prison staff saw him jump into a passing white van and informed the police.

Madsen accepted the additional sentence of one year and nine months handed down by Glostrup City Court on Tuesday.

The conviction does not add any time to his life sentence but may affect his ability to make future probation requests.

Madsen told the court that his plan was to hijack cars, take the owners' mobile phones and travel south to Germany.

The 2017 murder of award-winning journalist Wall made Madsen one of Denmark's most notorious criminals and the subsequent trial gripped Scandinavia.

The 30-year-old reporter was lured aboard Madsen's Nautilus vessel with the promise of an interview about a rocket programme he had founded in 2014.

Wall's partner later reported her missing and her body was found dismembered 11 days later on a beach.

The self-taught engineer was convicted of her sexual assault and murder by Copenhagen City Court in 2018.

Madsen initially claimed the death was an accident, but during his trial, he admitted to cutting up the body and throwing it into the Baltic Sea.

Madsen lost his appeal against the life sentence and apologised to the victim’s family after the appeals court.

Last month he admitted his guilt for the first time to a journalist in a documentary broadcast on Danish television.

Life sentences in Denmark usually mean 16 years in prison, but convicts are reassessed to determine whether they would pose a danger to society if released and can be kept longer.

During his trial, the psychiatric expert said that Madsen is "a pathological liar" and "a danger to others".

Additional sources • AP

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