Tina Satchwell's sister saw Richard Satchwell as an ‘obsessive' and ‘controlling' person

Irish Times

22-05-2025

The relationship between
Richard Satchwell
and his late wife
Tina
was 'odd' and he was a 'controlling' person, her sister has said.
Sarah Howard told the
Central Criminal Court
trial of Mr Satchwell, who denies murdering of his wife at their home in Youghal, Co Cork in March 2017, that the accused would call her sister his 'trophy' wife.
'I didn't think that was right,' she added.
She said Mr Satchwell was 'obsessive' and wanted to know where his wife was at all times and who she was speaking to.
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Ms Howard said the accused would 'find some fault' with every friend his wife ever made and that her circle of friends 'got smaller' as a result.
'I thought it was controlling and odd,' she said of the relationship.
Ms Howard, called as a witness for the defence, agreed with Brendan Grehan SC, for Mr Satchwell, that she made an initial statement to gardaí in May 2017 following her sister's disappearance. She provided a longer statement in August 2020, more than three years before the discovery of Ms Satchwell's remains in October 2023.
Ms Howard said she was 'angry' with Ms Satchwell when she answered questions posed by gardaí in 2020, believing her sister had put the family through 'untold stress'.
She said Mr Satchwell had accused his wife of taking money and made her out to be a violent person. However, she said she revised her views after Ms Satchwell 'was discovered dead and buried'.
'He is the person I should have aimed the anger that,' the witness said.
Ms Howard was asked in detail about her statement of August 2020.
She had said Mr Satchwell was 'obsessed' with her sister and that he knew she 'was above his league'.
She had said he spent every penny on Ms Satchwell 'to dress her up'. She agreed with counsel that she had described her sister as 'high maintenance'.
Ms Howard was asked by gardaí if Ms Satchwell might have had depression, to which she replied that she had concerns.
She said her brother had died by suicide and Mr Satchwell had portrayed her sister as depressed and 'extremely violent'.
'I had never seen violence, we had many arguments and she never once went to out a hand towards me,' she said.
Ms Howard had described her sister as a having a 'Jekyll and Hyde' personality with her, sometimes they would be friends, sometimes not. Both of them had a 'vicious' temper, she said.
The witness agreed that she said she had seen scratches on Mr Satchwell's back, but said she did not know in what context they arose. Mr Satchwell, like her own husband, works in building and often saw scratches on her husband, she said.
She said that when she was aged 15, Ms Satchwell, who was three years older, told her that she had slapped Mr Satchwell in the face, but she did not know in what context that arose.
Ms Howard said Ms Satchwell knew she could not get away from her husband and that 'he would follow her to the ends of the earth'.
She said Mr Satchwell had told her Tina had changed her Littlewoods account from her name into his. She did not see him as controlling at that time, 'but definitely possessive'. She has revised her views on that since, she said.
She was not fully aware of aspects of the couple's relationship which came to light after she heard things from others having made the 2020 statement. She also agreed she had told gardaí that Ms Satchwell 'loved herself'.
Ms Howard said Mr Satchwell showed her 'every scar' on his body after his wife went missing and blamed her sister for them. He had never referred to her sister as violent before she went missing and that was why she told gardaí she felt concerned about Tina's mental state, she said.
Ms Howard was the only witness for the defence in the trial of Mr Satchwell (58) who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his 45-year-old wife at their home at Grattan Street, Youghal, between March 19th and 20th, 2017.
The next stage in the trial will be closing speeches, followed by Mr Justice Paul McDermott's charge to the jury of seven women and five men.
Ms Satchwell's decomposed skeletal remains were discovered during a forensic search of the property on October 11th, 2023, about 6½ years after Mr Satchwell reported her missing.
After the discovery, Mr Satchwell told gardaí his wife had come at him with a chisel on the morning of March 20th, 2017. He said he used the belt of her dressing gown to fend her off, but that she 'went limp' and died.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster has told the jury that advanced decomposition meant Ms Satchwell's cause of death could not be determined at a postmortem carried out in October 2023.
Earlier on Thursday, Ms Howard said her mother is Mary Collins. For a long time, she said, she had considered Ms Satchwell to be her aunt but later found out she was her biological half-sister. Ms Collins was Ms Satchwell's mother but they have different fathers, she said.
Ms Satchwell found out Ms Collins was her birth mother around the time she was making her Confirmation because she went to look for her birth certificate, she said. Ms Satchwell was shocked and maybe felt she had been lied to, Ms Howard said.
Ms Satchwell had been raised by her grandmother, Florence Dingivan, Ms Howard said, adding that she saw them as mother and daughter and they got on really well.
She and Ms Satchwell were best friends growing up, she was in her house almost every day and they went to school together, she said.
Their relationship changed when Ms Satchwell found out she was her sister, not her aunt. Ms Satchwell felt she was 'given away', which was not the case, while Ms Howard was kept.
Ms Satchwell remained close to her grandmother and they later moved to England as a family, she said. There were years when Ms Satchwell was in her life and years when she was not.
Ms Satchwell got on with her mother Ms Collins at times and did not at others.
There were good and bad times and it always came back to her 'feeling somehow abandoned', Ms Howard said.
Ms Howard said she and Ms Satchwell adored their brother Tom and his death by suicide affected both of them a lot. She said half of Ms Satchwell's ashes are with her grandmother in her grave and half are with her brother in his grave.