Denmark’s most notorious prisoner, serving life for murdering a journalist aboard his homemade submarine, on Thursday lost a lawsuit against the Danish state over legislation barring him from cultivating new relationships.
Peter Madsen, 52, had argued that a law introduced in 2022 violated his right to a private life under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The law restricts life prisoners to having visits, letter and telephone contact only with people already close to them before their conviction, during the first 10 years of their sentence.
The submarine enthusiast and self-taught engineer was convicted in April 2018 of the premeditated murder and sexual assault of 30-year-old Kim Wall when the award-winning Swedish journalist went to interview him on board his submarine in August 2017.
“The court found no basis for (Madsen’s claim), which is why Storstrom Prison has been cleared of a number of allegations made by the inmate,” the Nykobing Falster district court wrote in a statement.
The court did however authorise Madsen to receive visits, letters and calls from a woman prison guard whom he met after the crime but before his conviction, which the prison had prohibited.
“It’s 50-50 but he will be less isolated than before,” Madsen’s lawyer Tobias Stadardfeld Jensen told AFP, adding that Madsen had not yet decided whether to appeal against the ruling.
During his 2018 trial, Madsen confessed to chopping up Wall’s body and stuffing her head, arms and legs into plastic bags, and weighing them down with metal pipes before tossing them into the sea.
His high-profile trial unveiled his interest in violent sex and snuff films showing women being beheaded, skinned, tortured and impaled.
– ‘Invasive’ legislation –
Several years later, Danes were outraged when a young woman revealed she had fallen in love with Madsen after starting a correspondence with him when he was in pre-trial detention and she was a minor.
That prompted the government to introduce the only legislation of its kind in Europe.
Criminology professor Linda Kjaer Minke of the University of Southern Denmark said prior to the verdict that she believed Madsen’s case had solid legal grounds.
“The law can be a violation of Article Eight of the European human rights convention.
“This article states that everyone has a right to respect for his private and family life and his correspondence,” she told AFP.
“The law shouldn’t restrain the right of prisoners in general to protect a very (small) number of women who might need help and support.”
She said it was a “shame” Madsen was the first convict to challenge the law in court.
“In the public debate, his crime overshadows the fact of how invasive this legislation is and that the Danish state may have gone too far.”
Madsen has been divorced twice, marrying a second time while in prison in 2019. That marriage ended in divorce in 2022.
Stadardfeld Jensen said his client had had almost no contact with the outside world since the law came into force.
– ‘Dating not a human right’ –
In June, he was found guilty of smuggling out four letters to two women.
Stadardfeld Jensen said it was a “coincidence that those who wanted contact with him were women” and that most of the exchanges were about rockets, Madsen’s true passion.
Four women who developed relationships with Madsen after he began serving his sentence attended the court proceedings in November.
Only one of them has had contacts of a romantic nature with Madsen, his lawyer said.
“There is a young woman who has developed feelings for him,” Stadardfeld Jensen said.
The Danish government has been adamant that the law is needed to protect people from dangerous criminals.
“It is not a human right to make new friends or have dates when you’re in prison for violent and bestial crimes,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told AFP.
“The aim of the law is, among other things, to put an end to a repeat of previous examples where inmates contact young people and lure them into their web in a bid to win their sympathy or attention,” he said.
Madsen’s lawyer insisted that was not the case for his client.
“He’s a guy who knows that what he has done is very brutal and he has no sympathy for himself at all,” said Stadardfeld Jensen.
