Prisoners serving life sentences in Denmark are to be prevented from starting new romantic relationships after it emerged a 17-year-old fell in love with Peter Madsen, the murderer of the journalist Kim Wall, while he was in jail.
For the first 10 years of their imprisonment, long-term inmates’ contacts, by letter, phone or online, will be limited to people they already knew before they entered prison, under legislation tabled by the social democrat-led government.
“We have seen distasteful examples in recent years of prisoners who have committed vile crimes contacting young people in order to gain their sympathy and attention,” the justice minister, Nick Hækkerup, said. “This must obviously be stopped.”
The six-point bill, which has the backing of the centre-right opposition and should come into force in January, will also stop long-term prisoners being allowed to post freely about their offences on social media or discuss them on podcasts.
At present, long-term inmates can write to, call and have visits from people they did not know before they were imprisoned, and share details of their offences online. Jails should not serve as “dating centres or media platforms to brag about crimes”, Hækkerup said.
The bill follows public outcry at the way Madsen, who murdered then dismembered Wall in 2017 when she went to interview him on his homemade submarine, was able to form relationships with at least two women while in jail.
The inventor, who was convicted of premeditated murder, aggravated sexual assault and desecrating a corpse but only confessed to Wall’s murder in a TV documentary last year, met and in 2020 married Jenny Curpen, 39, a Russian artist in Finland, after correspondence and visits that began soon after he was sentenced in April 2018.
Madsen also had a phone and written relationship with Cammilla Kürstein, who first contacted him as a 17-year-old schoolgirl in 2017 and last year told the Danish public broadcaster DK in an emotional interview that she was “absolutely in love with him”.
Human rights experts said they expected challenges to the new law. Jens Elo Rytter, of the University of Copenhagen, told the BT newspaper that on the face of it, the proposed ban on new relationships would “interfere with prisoners’ right to a private life”, while outlawing public statements might “raise questions about censorship”.
Wall, who had written for the Guardian and the New York Times, was last seen alive on the submarine, the Nautilus, on 10 August 2017. Her dismembered torso was found floating off the coast of Copenhagen 10 days after she was reported missing. Her head, legs and clothes were discovered in bags at sea that October.
Madsen, who was rescued shortly before the vessel sank, initially claimed to have set down the journalist on dry land. He subsequently changed his story, saying she had died when a heavy hatch cover accidentally fell on her head during their brief voyage on the 17-metre (56ft) submarine.
This post contains spoilers from Bachelor in Paradise season 7, episode 5.
Bachelor in Paradise picked up Tuesday night with enemies Aaron Clancy and Thomas Jacobs having some words on the sand over Tammy Ly ahead of the rose ceremony.
Tammy, 25, pulled Aaron, 26, to talk and explain why she hooked up with Thomas, 28, in front of him. “I’m trying to work out my own feelings,” she said.
Aaron told Tammy she “completely” betrayed his trust by going after Thomas. “You’ve talked to him for one day and you completely sacrificed everything we had built and you will regret it like no other, I promise you, because he’s not a good person,” Aaron continued. “He’s not. I’ve seen it firsthand. And you’re willing to … the fact you sacrificed what we had for that after not knowing anything about him except for the sweet talk is mind-blowing to me.”
Bachelor in Paradise
Craig Sjodin (3)
Aaron officially ended things with Tammy, telling the cameras, “I’d be fine if I never saw Tammy again.”
Tammy went to Thomas for comfort. “I feel terrible,” she cried. But soon enough, Tammy settled into her decision and she and Thomas kissed and canoodled on a daybed.
Meanwhile, Chasen Nick tried to salvage his relationship with Deandra Kanu by giving her a sparkly necklace — after Karl Smith gifted her a Pandora charm bracelet. Ultimately, Deandra, 25, turned down Karl’s gift.
“I do feel like I can’t accept this,” Deandra told him. “I know you wanted to give it to someone you that you felt like you were connecting with, and I want you to be able to give it to someone who you are connecting mutually.”
In an on-camera interview, Karl, 34, called Deandra rejecting his gift “the biggest punch in the gut.” On the beach, he confronted Chasen, 33, about trying to one-up him.
Bachelor in Paradise
Craig Sjodin/ABC (3)
“I just wanted to basically give her a gift just to let her know how much I appreciated her and the time we spent together, even if she finds something with you,” Karl told Chasen. “But then you give her a necklace the same day. That’s a little low.”
Chasen admitted he doesn’t usually give jewelry to women he just met. “That is a one-upper move,” Karl said. “I feel like calling you Captain One-Upper now.”
Watching Karl and Chasen fight from afar, Deandra didn’t know what to do with her rose. “I want to give Chasen the rose but I don’t know if he’s being genuine in how he feels,” she told the cameras.
RELATED: Bachelor in Paradise: ABC Releases First-Look Photos of Guest Hosts David Spade, Lil Jon and More
Meanwhile, Tre Cooper realized that Tahzjuan Hawkins “wasn’t my person” — and told her as much. “Just to give you an idea of where my head’s kind of been at, I want you to know that I don’t feel that we are right for each other and I think that that’s on both of us,” Tre, 26, told Tahzjuan, 27. “I think our communication could’ve definitely been better.”
With that, Tre decided to leave the show. And so did Tahzjuan. “I’m just done with love,” she declared. “I give up.”
Guest host Lance Bass gathered everyone in the palapa to tell them that he too would be leaving, but he had one last surprise for the cast. “This is going to change everything,” he said before bringing out a new single — former Bachelorette Becca Kufrin.
Ivan Hall pulled Becca, 31, first and asked her why she wanted to come on Paradise.
“I feel like I’m trying to be more of a yes woman these days,” she explained. “And this is probably like, the only time in my life where I was ready and available, so I said, ‘Hell yeah! Let’s do it!'”
Becca Kufrin
Craig Sjodin/abc
Becca also talked to James Bonsall, Karl and Aaron, who confessed to having a “major crush” on her. “If I get a date, I’ll probably ask you,” Aaron told Becca. “You’re super beautiful.”
Bartender Wells Adams informed everyone that the time had come for the rose ceremony, where the women would be handing out the roses.
Natasha Parker began by giving her rose to Brendan Morais. Maurissa Gunn offered hers to Riley Christian after their steamy one-on-one date, and Serena Pitt presented her rose to Grocery Store Joe Amabile. Abigail Heringer gave Noah Erb a rose and then Jessenia Cruz handed hers to Chris Conran following their date. Tammy, of course, gave her rose to Thomas and Demi Burnett to Kenny Braasch. Mari Pepin, after breaking up with Kenny, 40, asked James, 31, if he’d accept her rose — and he did. And after being tangled up in a love triangle, Deandra ended up giving her rose to Ivan, 29.
Becca’s highly anticipated rose went to Aaron, meaning Karl, Chasen and Connor Brennan had to head home.
RELATED VIDEO: Becca Kufrin addresses Blake Horstmann’s rekindled romance claims on ‘Click Bait with Bachelor Nation’ podcast
NEW ARRIVALS
After many a switch-up during the last rose ceremony, the couples would only continue to be tested when some more ladies showed up to the beach. First, Tia Booth from Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s season of The Bachelor entered with a date card.
Tia, 29, pulled Thomas and Kenny to talk, even though she insisted, “I’m not trying to steal anybody’s man.”
Kenny wanted to touch base with Demi, 26, about the possibility of going on a date with another woman if Tia asked. “I would be bummed,” Demi admitted. “I mean, I don’t want you to, but I also don’t want you to be upset that you didn’t go.”
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Kenny replied, “I didn’t feel like we were full-on dating or anything yet.” So when Tia did in fact ask him on a one-on-one date, Kenny accepted.
“I hope they have a terrible f—ing time,” Demi told the group.
RELATED VIDEO: Jessenia Cruz Talks About Exploring Her Options and Making the Most of Her Time on BIP
Before a new couple could potentially form, another nearly broke up. Abigail, 26, worried about the progress of her relationship with Noah, also 26, so she approached him about it.
“I think we’re more than friends but we’re not at a relationship level yet,” Abigail told Noah.
Noah felt like he wasn’t getting a lot of engagement from Abigail. “I guess I didn’t realize I was giving off that vibe,” she said.
“We might’ve slipped and it got too comfortable but are we able to even get to where … what we want by the end of this is the question,” Noah wondered to Abigail.
Noah decided he needed to “think for a minute” about the future of his and Abigail’s relationship.
TIA AND KENNY’S DATE
For their one-on-one, Tia and Kenny got approached by three people to play volleyball in the zona sin ropa — area without clothes. The two women and one man stripped down and Kenny and Tia didn’t know what to do.
“We’re full flaccid wiener on the beach,” Tia quipped to the cameras.
Tia and Kenny discussed whether they felt comfortable baring it all on their first date. “I’m not showing my china pot,” she asserted.
They decided Tia would take her top off and Kenny would remove his pants. “You could say he is the full package and has the full package,” Tia said in an on-camera interview.
Kenny deemed getting naked “a nice way to get to know each other right off the bat.”
After the game, Kenny and Tia toasted champagne on the beach and he caught her up on his Paradise journey thus far, which included dating Mari, 25, and then Demi. “I’m getting murdered in my sleep,” Tia said because of Kenny’s rich dating history on the show.
That didn’t stop Tia from making out with Kenny all over the beach, though.
JOE AND KENDALL REUNITE
Along with Kenny and Demi’s relationship possibly ending, Serena, 23, and Joe’s connection threatened to take a hit when Joe’s ex Kendall Long descended the Paradise stairs.
Joe Amabile, Kendall Long
Robin L Marshall/Getty; Presley Ann/Getty Joe Amabile, Kendall Long
“I don’t want to just completely let go of him and I see Paradise as where we began,” Kendall, 29, told the cameras. “… I have love for him of course. We still loved each other when we broke up so I don’t know if we’ve ever really stopped having that connection. I definitely miss Joe.”
RELATED: Kendall Long ‘Did Not See’ Split with Joe Amabile Coming and Thought They Would ‘Get Married’
Kendall didn’t want to talk to anyone, stopping at Ivan, James and Brendan, 31, only to ask, “Do you guys know where Joe is?”
They pointed her to a daybed, where Joe was laying with Serena. “Hey, butthead!” Kendall greeted Joe.
She asked Joe to talk and he agreed, although to the camera the grocer cursed his ex’s presence.
Bachelor in Paradise airs Monday and Tuesdays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.
Jack was supposed to be pansexual in Mass Effect 2, but BioWare changed her romance after the first game was criticized by the mainstream media.
In the 11 years since Mass Effect 2 launched, fans have often wondered why Jack – a character who specifically references times in which she became intimate with non-male romantic partners – is only romanceable if Commander Shepard is a man. As it turns out, this wasn’t supposed to be the case. Jack was originally written as pansexual, but her relationship conditions were changed towards the end of development due to concerns about the mainstream media’s reception to the first Mass Effect game.
After Mass Effect launched in 2007, Fox News hosted an extraordinarily tactless panel pertaining to the game’s depiction of sex. As expected of the time, sex was spoken about as if it were completely taboo.
The panel instigated a domino effect, which led to baseless criticism not only towards Mass Effect’s sex scenes, but also the fact that it included a non-straight romance option in Liara T’Soni (Kaidan Allenko was locked into a straight-only relationship arc until Mass Effect 3).
“I was trying to chart out the arc of [Jack’s] romance, which for much of the development – it was actually very late that it became a male/female-only romance,” Brian Kindregan tells me. Kindregan was the lead writer for Jack, Samara, and the first critical path mission on Horizon in Mass Effect 2, and also did the first pass on Grunt and Tuchanka, “She was essentially pansexual for most of the development of that romance.
Related: Retailers List Mass Effect: Legendary Edition For March
“Mass Effect had been pretty heavily and really unfairly criticized in the US by Fox News, which at the time… maybe more people in the world thought that there was a connection between reality and what gets discussed on Fox News,” Kindregan continues. “The development team of Mass Effect 2 was a pretty progressive, open-minded team, but I think there was a concern at pretty high levels that if [the first] Mass Effect, which only had one gay relationship, Liara – which on paper was technically not a gay relationship because she was from a mono-gendered species – I think there was a concern that if that had drawn fire, that Mass Effect 2 had to be a little bit careful.”
Interestingly enough, Courtenay Taylor – who played Jack in Mass Effect 2 – also expressed that she was originally supposed to be a pansexual character. In a recent chat with our own Kirk McKeand, Taylor said:
“It’s funny to me because my understanding was always that she was pansexual. So I don’t know if that’s just something I inferred from the character or something that she said that maybe got cut. I was surprised there wasn’t a female romance possible because that was my understanding. I think it was the time, you know? That was, what – 2008/2009? The industry has changed exponentially since then, and BioWare was leading the charge on that. I don’t know if it came down to a budget constraint or maybe someone being like ‘this is too obvious’ because everyone was like ‘of course she’s a lesbian.’ But my sense was always that she was [pansexual] and it just didn’t get followed through. Of course, the community modded it immediately so you can have it your way.”
As Jack’s writer, Kindregan explains that he didn’t necessarily agree with the decision to change her sexuality. He understands why it happened, and says “it wasn’t like some anti-gay person high up on the Mass Effect 2 team saying, ‘we’re not going to have that’.” Instead, it had to do with the firestorm of controversy that Mass Effect had received back in 2007, and attempting to minimize the amount of critique that would be directed towards the community by outlets like Fox News again. “The short version is, a lot of us were asked pretty late to focus the relationships on a more traditional kind of vector,” Kindregan says.
“I’ve definitely heard a lot from people who were surprised that Jack turned out to not be open to that,” he continues. “I understand why. I would say that there were a lot of seeds planted in her conversations that certainly implied that she was pansexual – she once specifically references being part of a thrupple. She says there was a guy and a woman she was running with that invited her into their robberies and into their bed. She definitely references those things. That was explicitly to start sending the message that yes, this is a character who is pansexual. In the eleventh hour revision of cleaning that up, she’d already been partially recorded with voiceover. Not all of that could be changed.
“I would say even with the things I could change, and I don’t know if this was the right decision or not, I still saw her as a character with an edge,” Kindregan says. “Not edgy, but with an edge of not following traditional norms. I think I might have, even during the revision process, kept some of that stuff in there with a sense of like yeah, this is a person who’s been around and done a lot of things, went off the farm and down to Paris.”
Ultimately, though, Jack became a romance option that was exclusively available for male Shepard, despite the fact that both her writer and actor agree that she was originally supposed to be pansexual. 2010 was only three years after the infamous Fox News Mass Effect debacle, and so BioWare was reluctant to follow through on some of the ideas that were specifically put in place early in development. By the end of production, the only non-straight romance options in the game were:
Kelly Chambers, who is not a squadmate and does not disqualify other relationships.
Samara, who expresses that she has feelings for you but ultimately turns you down – Kindregan compares it to someone saying, sure, I’ll be with you, but I’m in love with this other person and I’ll ditch you for them if they come calling.
Morinth, who literally kills you less than a single second into having sex.
“I’ve worked with lesbian developers who have come up to me and said like, ‘Why is Jack not into me?’” Kindregan says. “And I have to say ‘I’m so sorry, it’s partially my fault.’ But I still stand by the thing of keeping her with a more varied background. Maybe someday Jack will be portrayed as pan.”
Keep an eye on TheGamer.com at the beginning of February for our Mass Effect Day – an entire day of deep-dive articles dedicated to one of the best RPG series of all time.
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About The Author
Cian Maher (465 Articles Published)
Cian Maher is the Lead Features Editor at TheGamer. He’s also had work published in The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Verge, Vice, Wired, and more. You can find him on Twitter @cianmaher0.
