Kim Wall: Swedish journalist 'killed by hatch in homemade submarine falling on her', claims inventor Peter Madsen

Inventor tells court he tried to bury reporter at sea and intended to take his own life inside submarine

The homemade submarine 'UC3 Nautilus', built by Danish inventor Peter Madsen, who is charged with killing Swedish journalist Kim Wall (Reuters)

Swedish journalist Kim Wall died in an accident when she was hit by a heavy hatch cover on board a homemade submarine, the Danish owner of the submarine told a court.

Peter Madsen was holding the hatch for Wall as they sailed in the strait between Denmark and Sweden last month on a submarine he had built, he told a Danish court on Tuesday.

“I lose my foothold and the hatch shuts,” he said. “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. On 23 August, police identified a headless female torso that washed ashore in Copenhagen as Wall’s. The cause of her death has not been determined .

The police have charged Madsen with killing the Swedish journalist, a charge carrying a sentence of five years to life in prison. He was arrested after his submarine sank and he was rescued.

The Copenhagen district court will rule on whether to extend his custody and on what charges.

Ms Wall was an experienced foreign correspondent who had reported from Uganda, Haiti and Sri Lanka. Her mother said: “She gave voice to the weak, vulnerable and marginalised people. That voice had been needed for a long, long time, now it has been silenced.”

Police announced last month they believed Ms Wall’s body had been weighed down “likely with the purpose to make it sink”.