The murder trial of billionaire Danish inventer Peter Madsen has been dragging on for a few weeks now. In case you somehow missed this story thus far you can check out our earlier rundown of the death of journalist Kim Walls aboard Madsen’s personal submarine and how his warped story of what happened to her kept changing over and over again. The trial was originally projected to be wrapped up by now, but Madsen has been removed for psychiatric evaluation. The report which came back from the doctors this week won’t exactly knock anyone over with a feather. They have determined that Madsen shows signs of being psychopathic.

Gee… ya think? (Oxygen)

The Danish inventor accused of dismembering and murdering Swedish journalist Kim Walls showed psychopathic traits, and had no remorse for cutting up her body, a psychiatric assessment found…

Prosecutors last Thursday read aloud excerpts from Madsen’s psychiatric assessment conducted after Wall’s body was found.

He showed no emotion when explaining why he removed Wall’s head, legs and arms.

“What do you do when you have a big problem? You divide it into something smaller,” Peter Madsen told psychiatrists, according to excerpts cited by The Guardian. Madsen also reportedly said that “a dead body does not deserve any special respect.”

I’m sure there was more that went into the diagnosis than just that one item, but the doctors apparently focused heavily on the fact that Madsen failed to show any remorse for removing the head, arms and legs from Wall’s torso. His description of the situation as a “big problem” which needed to be “divided into something smaller” certainly sounds warped to me, so I won’t argue with the shrinks here too much. Of course, the snuff films on his computer were probably a significant tip in that direction as well.

But there’s also a puzzling conflict between what he told the doctors during the evaluation and what he said when he took the stand in his own defense on March 21st. At that time he was asked about the process of dismembering Wall and he told the court that it was absolutely “horrible” and he could barely talk about it. (NY Post)

Prosecutors grilled Peter Madsen for the second day of his trial in Copenhagen court about how he dismembered the body of Kim Wall — who he claims accidentally died aboard his submarine last August.

“It’s something so horrible that I do not want to go into detail. I will just say, that it was horrible,” Madsen said, according to SkyNews…

“I was in an insane situation and used what was around,” Madsen said.

If it was really so horrible that he could barely bring himself to speak about it, why was he so matter of fact when discussing it with the doctors? He seemed to go the extra mile when he noted that a dead body “does not deserve any special respect.”

Recognizing the dangers of trying to play armchair quarterback (or in this case, armchair psychologist), am I the only one who’s suspicious that this guy is trying to set up an insanity defense after his not guilty plea is almost assuredly blown up in court? He’s supposedly a genius with an IQ that’s off the charts. Surely he’s smart enough to figure out some way to wriggle out of going to prison for the rest of his life, and convincing the officials there that he’s completely nuts might at least land him in a hospital instead of a cell. Then, after some number of years, he might be able to convince the doctors that they’ve healed his shattered mind, he’s showing real remorse and might be ready to go free.

I wouldn’t put it past him. The guy is very wealthy, well connected and highly intelligent. And while I realize we’re still supposed to say “alleged” because he pleaded not guilty, he’s also a murderer. Will the justice system over there actually let him find a loophole and escape his fate?