The full story of the Richard Satchwell murder trial

Irish Times

a day ago

For more than six years after the disappearance of his wife Tina,
Richard Satchwell
painted a picture of himself as a devoted husband cowed by a controlling and sporadically violent wife.
The 58-year-old lorry driver stuck to that account after the skeletal remains of his 45-year-old wife were found in a grave under the stairs of their home in a metre-deep grave on October 11th, 2023 and throughout his trial.
He never laid a hand on her throughout their relationship, he insisted. The only time he 'truly defended' himself was during a struggle on March 20th, 2017 when she tried to stab him with a chisel, resulting in what he said was her unintentional death.
Satchwell denied murdering his wife Tina at their home on Grattan Street in Youghal, Co Cork, in 2017, but
on Friday a jury found him guilty
of her murder, after deliberating for more than nine hours. He will be sentenced on June 4th.
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During the trial the prosecution rejected the picture paintedby Satchwell, arguing that he was an 'obsessive' husband who isolated his 'trophy' wife and ultimately killed her. They claimed he killed her possibly because she had threatened to leave him, buried her deep under their home and told a 'plethora of lies' over years to 'put everyone off the scent'.
The question of who was in control in the Satchwells' relationship hung over the trial. The answer remains unclear – even after a 23-day trial –
but it was clear, after her death, her husband sought to control the narrative of her disappearance, their relationship and, much later, of how she met her death.
Tina Satchwell with one of her beloved dogs
How did Tina Satchwell meet Richard Satchwell?
Tina Satchwell grew up as Tina Dingivan in Fermoy, living with her grandmother Florence Dingivan, whom she believed was her mother, and across the road from Mary Collins, who was in fact her birth mother. Her best friend was Mary's daughter Lorraine whom Tina believed was her aunt.
Her world was turned upside down after discovering the true identity of her mother when she sought her birth certificate for her Confirmation. This led to feelings of abandonment and resentment towards some family members.
After her grandparents' marriage broke up, she moved with her grandmother to the village of Coalville near Leicester in England, where they lived beside Richard Satchwell's brother. Richard Satchwell was 22 when he met the diminutive 17-year-old Irish woman. Immediately smitten, he told his brother he would marry her. They were living together in her grandmother's house within months.
Tina Satchwell
The couple married in Youghal on her 20th birthday in November 1991, moved to Fermoy in 1993, and in 2016 bought the old four-storey house at No 3 Grattan Street in Youghal, near the waterfront in the east Cork town.
Satchwell was a lorry driver but his wife had no recorded employment and did not drive. Tina, petite at 5ft 4in and eight stone, was described as a glamorous woman. She loved fashion, as was evident from a room crammed with expensive clothes in her home and a €4,500 maximum credit account with Littlewoods Ireland (which was in significant arrears). She loved animals, treated her dogs Ruby and Heidi as if they were her children, and was bereft when her parrot Pearl died.
When did Tina Satchwell go missing?
It was four days after the 45-year-old's death when Satchwell came forward to say his wife was missing.
On March 24th, 2017, Satchwell asked relatives of his wife whether they hadseen her before going to Fermoy Garda station, 43km from Youghal Garda station. There, he told a garda he had returned home four days earlier to find his wife gone. He said he believed she had left him, taken their €26,000 cash savings, and he was not worried for her safety.
Over the following days and months, Satchwell told her family, gardaí, journalists and others he believed his wife had some 'undiagnosed psychiatric condition'.
He said she had a short fuse and was liable to unpredictable outbursts directed at him but stressed that he would never lay a hand on her and that he had put up with this because he loved her. She was 'too vain' to harm herself, he said.
On May 11th, 2017 – more than a week after being interviewed by gardaí who were concerned about her welfare – he formally reported his wife missing. He told gardaí she might slap him once a week. He said there was 'real violence' three or four times a year and, the weekend before she left, she 'got angry out of nowhere' and told him she 'wasted 28 years' with him. She claimed she 'wore the trousers' in their relationship and he was a 'bit of a walkover'.
This, the prosecution argued, was all part of a false narrative that this 'arch-manipulator' was carefully constructing within hours of his wife's death to suggest she was still alive. That included creating a digital footprint, including an email on the morning of March 20th, 2017, seeking to finalise the purchase of two marmoset monkeys, named Terry and Thelma, 'because my wife has said she is leaving me over this'.
Ten days later, Satchwell offered a chest freezer free to his wife's cousin Sarah Howard. She regarded this as 'strange' because he was 'not known for giving things'.
After she refused, he advertised it a day later on Done Deal as 'working perfect, just needs a clean'. He had used the freezer, not plugged in, to store the body of his wife over two days before burying her in the grave under their home.
The jury viewed 14 video clips of Satchwell making media appeals and statements over the years after his wife's disappearance, including ones urging her to come home.
The Satchwells were regulars at car-boot sales and, days after his wife's disappearance, he told others at one of these sales she had gone to the UK after contracting a 'terrible infection' through dry rot in their house. John Keohane said Satchwell told him his wife had left him, taking €25,000 from their attic. Satchwell claimed she was 'a street angel and house devil' and had broken two of his teeth after hitting him.
Satchwell consistently said he believed his wife was alive and sought to involve her family in public appeals made to encourage her to return home. He hand-delivered a birthday card to Sarah Howard, his wife's cousin, in August 2017, signed 'Tina and Richard'.
Satchwell maintained his narrative of a worried, devoted husband and of a sporadically violent and possibly depressed wife who left him – 'to the bitter end', as prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small put it. That was until Tina Satchwell's skeletal remains were found during an excavation of their home in October 2023.
Gardaí at the search the Satchwell home in Youghal, Co Cork in connection with the dissappearance of Tina Satchwell. Photograph: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision
Where were Tina Satchwell's remain's found?
A Garda video of the interior of the house showed scenes of squalor, including dried dog faeces on the floor, tools, dirty dishes and other items strewn around and a cement-mixer in the livingroom. He was living 'like a homeless person', Satchwell told gardaí.
Hours before his wife's remains were discovered, he told gardaí she threatened to leave him on and off following her brother's death by suicide in 2012.
The couple were never very sexually active and had no sexual relations after her brother's death, 'which made me feel useless', he said. Satchwell insisted he never 'pestered' her for sex. He had wanted children but she never did, he said.
On his rearrest on October 12th, 2023, after the remains of his wife were discovered, the prosecution argued there was 'no road to Damascus' moment and that he then switched to an 'unbelievable' account of how his wife died.
On the morning of March 20th, 2017, he said he saw his wife at the bottom of the stairs using a chisel on plasterwork he had put up. He said he asked her what she was doing and that she 'flew' at him.
He claimed he fell backwards and that she was on top of him trying to stab him with the chisel. To 'protect' himself, he said all he could do was hold her weight off him with her dressing-gown belt that was at her neck. She got heavier, 'fell limp', and was left dead in his arms, he claimed.
Gardaí repeatedly put to him that his account made no sense. He said he was telling it 'the best way I can', it was all 'a blur' and there was 'no premeditation'. He had no explanation for the presence of 15 fragments of toughened glass, the type found in patio doors, in her scalp and torso.
He did not call gardaí or emergency services due to 'panic and shame'. His 'Irish rose' was dead, he claimed; he put her on the couch and, maybe two days later, in the freezer because the dogs kept going to her.
Working 'on automatic', he said he dug a grave under the stairs, laid his wife on black plastic on the floor and put her face down into the grave on March 26th. He was not 'disrespectful' in this 'self-funeral', he buried tulips with her and put her wedding ring into her dressing-gown pocket.
Gardaí and Fr Bill Bermingham (right) after human remains are found following the search and excavation at the Satchwell house in Youghal. Photograph: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision
No ring was found during the excavation.
He covered the grave with some of the black sandy soil under the stairs and then with cement. He wanted 'to keep her with me', 'not to leave her alone' and 'to know the hand that killed her was also the hand that loved her'.
He knew he was 'a bad person', he told gardaí.
'I should have just let her stab me, let it be the end of me,' he said.
His quality of life since was 'non-existent'.
'It started as a lie and the lie escalated,' he said.
When charged with murder on the evening of October 12th, 2023, he replied:'Guilty or not guilty – guilty.'
Because of advanced decomposition of Tina Satchwell over the years, no cause of death could be established. In arguing he had no intention to kill or cause serious injury, the defence said there was no evidence of fractures to the bones, particularly the hyoid bone which is damaged in about 23 per cent of ligature strangulations and up to 70 per cent of manual strangulations.
Defence counsel Brendan Grehan accepted Satchwell's actions in concealing his wife were the main reason for lack of evidence for the cause of death but he argued that failures in the Garda investigation meant there was 'plenty of blame to go around'.
Increasingly suspicious 'something untoward' had happened to Tina Satchwell, gardaí searched, though not invasively, the couple's home in Youghal in June 2017. They saw unfinished 'home improvement' works and a new red brick wall at the side of the stairs. A seized laptop revealed a YouTube video concerning quicklime – which can be used to reduce smells from the decomposition of a body – was viewed twice in March 2017.
The day after the June 2017 search, Satchwell voluntarily attended Midleton Garda station nearby in Co Cork where he referred to his wife physically assaulting him but said he never reacted. He expressed concern public appeals might dissuade her returning home as she might fear ridicule about having left.
The investigation, Grehan said, found a 'new energy' in August 2021 when Supt Annemarie Twomey was appointed senior investigation officer and Det Gdada David Kelleher became involved, but it still moved at a 'pedestrian' pace.
Twomey, who was not previously involved in the investigation, said by February 2022 gardaí believed Ms Satchwell was dead and by August 2022 considered there were reasonable grounds to arrest Richard Satchwell. Before that, 58 other lines of inquiry had to be exhausted. More than 60 reported sightings of Tina Satchwell in Ireland and abroad had been made.
Forensic archaeologist Dr Niamh McCullagh, having reviewed the files at Twomey's request, recommended an invasive forensic search of the Satchwell home, including the use of a cadaver dog to search the couple's home.
She said research into cases of domestic homicide had found it was common to create a verbal narrative and file a false missing person's report. In 'concealment homicide' cases, her research indicated most female victims are disposed of within a kilometre of their home.
The structural changes to the Satchwell home, evident in 2017, were 'a red flag', she said.
During the October 2023 search, a cadaver dog called 'Fern' showed interest in the area under the stairs in the sittingroom of the Satchwell home.
Det Gda Brian Barry and a builder noted different coloured concrete there and wondered about poor brickwork in the new wall alongside. That site was fully excavated and Tina Satchwell's remains were discovered on October 11th.
What were the main arguments in the Richard Satchwell trial?
The trial centred on whether or not the prosecution had established Satchwell intended to kill or seriously injure his wife. The defence argued there was no intent and no evidence he had ever laid a finger on his wife.
The question was 'who was controlling who'.
The jury had heard from the Satchwell's GP that 'battered husbands' are 'not as rare as people might think'. Satchwell's 'disreputable' conduct afterwards could not establish intent, Grehan argued.
Prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small leaving the Richard Satchwell trial at the Central Criminal Court Dublin. Photograph: Collins Courts
Small, the prosecuting barrister, pointed to Satchwell's many lies, saying he had a possible motive for murder in that his wife may have been preparing to leave him and that his account of how she died was 'nonsense' and 'conspicuously lacking in detail'.
A somewhat different picture of Tina Satchwell
emerged from the last two witnesses.
Sarah Howard said she never witnessed violence from Tina, her 'kind-hearted' and 'genuinely lovely' cousin. While agreeing she had told gardaí Satchwell was so 'besotted' with his wife he could not have caused her harm, she said that was 'before'.
Lorraine Howard,
the only witness called by the defence, was asked about what she told gardaí in 2017 and 2020 about her half-sister. She had walked in years earlier on a conversation between Tina, then aged 18, and their grandmother. A laughing Tina told her grandmother she had slapped Satchwell on the face. Lorraine Howard said she would not say Satchwell was controlling but that he was 'definitely possessive'.
Lorraine Howard said she had not then seen Richard Satchwell as controlling but that she had revised her view. She said she had spoken to gardaí 'in anger' about her half-sister at that time because Tina's disappearance was causing her family 'untold stress'. She later revised her views when she learned she was dead and Richard Satchwell had been 'telling me all these lies'.
She agreed Tina Satchwell was 'high maintenance' and 'wore the trousers' and that her husband spent every penny on her 'to dress her up'. Both sisters had 'vicious' tempers and had not had a conversation in the 15 years before her death, she said.
Lorraine Howard said Satchwell was 'obsessive' about his wife, wanting to know where she was all the time. He 'was controlling and just odd', would find fault with every friend she had, and that her circle of friends had grown 'smaller and smaller'.
'That's how he liked it, just the two of them,' said Howard. 'She would confide in me [that] he would follow her to the ends of the earth and she had no way of getting away from him.'