New wife of Danish man who killed journalist Kim Wall defends their marriage

Police on board Peter Madsen's submarine in 2017. Photo / AP file

The Danish killer of Kim Wall, a distinguished freelance journalist, has married a Russian artist who says she has since been inundated with abusive messages online.

Peter Madsen, who was jailed for life after murdering Wall in Denmark on his self-built submarine in 2017, confirmed on social media this week that he married Jenny Curpen on December 19.

Curpen, a former journalist who fled Russia to claim political asylum in Finland, has defended their marriage and insists it is not part of an art project.

She also claimed that Madsen, who sexually assaulted Wall before dismembering her corpse and dumping her body parts at sea, was also a "victim" of the crime. "My husband committed a horrible crime and he is punished for that.

"However, knowing him for real give [sic] me an exclusive right to say that I am lucky to be with the most beautiful, smart, talented, devoted and empathetic person and man ever," she wrote in a post on social media earlier this week. "My husband is the one of two victims of his crime and staying alive was a punishment itself for him."

Russian artist marries Danish submarine killer Peter Madsen saying "we smash 'normality' into pieces" https://t.co/mjhPJAcz6K

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 14, 2020

In an interview with the BBC, Curpen denied that the marriage was part of an art project, insisting that her relationship with Madsen was genuine.

She said that since the marriage was made public she has received "thousands of weird, stupid, absurd or aggressive comments, messages and threats of physical nature from many so-called normal, law-abiding good people".

Madsen, an eccentric inventor, committed the murder after inviting Wall on to a submarine that he had built himself. He admitted to dismembering Wall's body and dumping the parts at sea, but insisted she had died during an accident during their trip.

He was convicted of her murder in April 2018 and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a judge noting the "unusual brutality" of his actions. A psychiatric evaluation conducted during the trial described him as a narcissistic psychopath.

Wall, a Swedish journalist who was just 30 when she died, had reported from across the world for Time magazine, the Guardian and the New York Times.