'We knew he was lying': the inside story on how gardaí finally caught Richard Satchwell

The Journal

2 days ago

ON A BRIGHT sunny October morning in 2023, Richard Satchwell walked – almost stumbling at times – through a square in Cashel, Co Tipperary.
Flanked by gardaí and wearing handcuffs, he emerged from a garda vehicle with his head bowed. Locals looked on from the top of the street as the last moments of Satchwell's freedom played out, with the flashes of photographers' cameras lighting up the shadows below his face.
Satchwell was charged that day and remanded in custody to wait his trial in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin that concluded on Friday with a guilty verdict.
It is a tradition in An Garda Síochána that when there is a big capture the garda who put the most effort into the case gets the charge sheet.
On that day Detective Garda David Kelleher gave evidence in the witness box of Satchwell's arrest, charge and caution.
Behind the scenes, multiple sources have said that the case would have never been solved if it wasn't for Kelleher's tenacity and sheer bloody mindedness which got the investigation to the point where gardaí could dig inside the terraced house on Grattan Street in Youghal where Tina Satchwell's remains were found.
He was ordered, or as Gardaí say 'directed' to work on the file by his then Detective Inspector Annmarie Twomey.
Gardaí flank Richard Satchwell as he arrives at Cashel District Court. From left: Det Sgt David Noonan, Richard Satchwell, Det Gda David Kelleher, Det Gda David Barry and Superintendent Adrian Gamble.
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Alamy Stock Photo
Fixing the missteps
Sources have said there had been profound missteps in the original investigation that started in 2017, including missed opportunities, leads not followed, glaring holes in stories and phone records not pursued.
There was also a hugely expensive search of a woodland when the gardaí leading the probe had very little to go on. A local man had allegedly come forward with information that Richard Satchwell had been spotted in the area – but it proved to not be accurate.
Multiple sources have said that the search caused significant disquiet among senior officers, particularly as their budgets for day-to-day policing were left suffering in its wake.
The Satchwell case was going cold at that stage – sources said assessments for some garda commanders were that there was a need to focus on cases that could be solved.
That was until David Kelleher decided to keep digging in the files. From time to time a garda will be directed to re-examine and review investigations to find new leads. That is what he did.
Kelleher found a quiet garda station in east Cork and set up an office as his incident room where he began to examine the case, statement by statement, as well as looking at scraps of evidence and exactly what Richard Satchwell and other witnesses had told gardaí.
The quiet station was in Carrigtoohill, a small commuter village just off the N25 dual carriageway which has been dubbed the Cork to Madrid road: it links the south coast cities and towns with the port at Rosslare.
The road will also lead you directly to the Satchwell house in Youghal, 30 minutes away. Youghal still shows the signs of the faded seaside glamour of an old Victorian resort. It is a small picturesque seaside town close to the Cork and Waterford border.
Tina Satchwell was reported missing on 24 March, 2017.
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Review
Kelleher began to pick the file apart. He found investigative errors and missed leads and bit by bit, he began compiling a new strategy. In evidence given in court, Kelleher's boss Detective Inspector Annmarie Twomey, said it took months to re-examine the file.
The evidence included witness statements, CCTV, details of the search of Tina's home in 2017 when she first went missing, inquiries at ports and airports, inquiries with social welfare and the passport offices, media appeals by Gardaí and Richard Satchwell, and inquiries into reported sightings.
Well-placed sources said that Kelleher found some key clues in the file, including critical information around phone traffic and their locations. The issue wasn't that the information wasn't collected by the original investigators – it was that it was not identified as a critical part of the puzzle.
This examination, sources said, gave them an important jumping off point to test Satchwell's story. The study of phone records produced geolocation data which was then cross-referenced with CCTV footage of Satchwell at Youghal Post Office and Aldi in Dungarvan on 20 March 2017 – the apparent date of the murder.
There was an examination of a laptop which found that internet searches had been carried out just days after Tina's disappearance for details on quick lime and how it interacted with water. These searches were never acted on.
Around that time gardaí engaged other investigative experts including forensic accountant Tadhg Twomey and forensic archaeologist Dr Niamh McCullagh. There were new lines of enquiry established and 'job sheets' – task assignments – were issued to detectives to follow up particular leads.
The accountant had discovered in an examination of the couple's finances that there was no evidence to support Satchwell's claim that Tina had left with €26,000.
New statements were taken.
The Journal
understands that in one discussion with gardaí Satchwell lied about work being done on his house to cover up the pouring of the concrete. The gardaí were able to disprove that by finding the builder Satchwell erroneously claimed carried out the work.
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The town of Youghal.
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Alamy Stock Photo
'Unlawful killing'
By February 2022, Annmarie Twomey told the trial, gardaí knew they had enough to say that Tina Satchwell was murdered. They reached this point by chasing multiple leads that proved to an objective standard that the woman was dead and the most likely cause was 'unlawful killing'.
In 2021 another new part of the strategy was adopted. Detective Sergeant David Noonan conducted a cognitive technique interview with Richard Satchwell. This technique, used by police across the world, employs memory cues and other tactics to enhance recall of people who could have critical information.
It took four hours to work through Richard Satchwell's story and Noonan told the court that Satchwell was co-operative throughout.
Using what they were finding in the file Kelleher and Twomey continued to find holes in Satchwell's story. By August 2022, they knew they had enough to begin, as gardaí would say, to form a reasonable belief that Richard Satchwell had murdered his wife.
They did not immediately arrest Satchwell though. More work was needed.
The reports by Dr Niamh McCullagh, the forensic archaeologist, were critical to devising a new forensic strategy.
During the trial there was criticism of the original investigators for not carrying out an invasive search of the house in Youghal.
A forensic examination was carried out by Cork-based gardaí after a local sergeant in Youghal formed an opinion that it was likely Tina Satchwell was dead in 2017.
A senior source we spoke to said that it was unfair to criticise gardaí for not doing an invasive search then rather than just a careful forensic examination
and added that they could not 'knock walls' in a house with nothing more than a suspicion.
That may be but there were some significant issues with the investigation, including a failure to follow up evidence of the laptop search by Satchwell regarding the quick lime or the geolocation evidence – not to mention the lack of a forensic examination of the finances.
But that all changed with Kelleher's doggedness. The investigation neared its completion
and there was a final meeting of gardaí shortly before they made their move.
The Detective Superintendent in Cork Sean Healy was involved.
Gardaí conducting the search at Grattan Street.
Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Executing the warrant
Kelleher and Twomey's work convinced him that it was time to take a significant turn and free up a budget to go to Grattan Street in Youghal and begin the painstaking work of forensically excavating the house.
Twomey obtained a search warrant from the District Court in early October 2023. On 10 October the guards began their move. Twomey went to Grattan Street and told Satchwell what was happening. Kelleher arrested Satchwell.
It was a dramatic move. Some sources at the time told
The Journal
that they doubted whether it would work, but others, closer to Cork North Division, knew this was the moment that the lies Richard Satchwell told were all going to fall apart.
One source said on the day: 'There's a DO [garda slang for detective] involved, a fella Kelleher – he's convinced [that this will work]'.
Garda forensic experts from Dublin were brought in and construction workers with specialist digging equipment were hired.
Under the stairs the searchers found poorly poured concrete and badly built brickwork that did not match the rest of the surroundings. It was here where they found the makeshift tomb where, wrapped in plastic, Tina Satchwell's body was located.
Satchwell had been released by gardaí but he was rearrested.
The gardaí then had what they needed: the evidence to burst the final lies. All the police work invariably leads to a garda interview room. And in Cobh Garda Station, under camera, Satchwell was confronted with the weight of evidence in what gardaí call 'the challenge interview'.
Sources said there were four detectives involved in this part of the process: David Noonan, David Kelleher, David Barry and John Donovan.
The gardaí received directions to charge from the Director of Public Prosecutions and performed what was described in court by Defence Counsel Brendan Grehan as 'a perp walk'.
The culture in the gardaí is that they do the probe and then leave it to the prosecuting barristers to convince the jury. Right up until the verdict, sources said that there were concerns among the gardaí that there was not enough to prove the murder because there were some doubts around establishing the critical ingredient of intent for Satchwell to be found guilty of murder.
The gardaí will gather tonight in a local pub with those involved and toast the success – but as one source said there is a macabre little bit of detail that has not been confirmed.
Satchwell had stored Tina's body in a large freezer before burying her in the makeshift grave under the stairs. It was later sold online through the Done Deal website.
As one source said: 'No-one knows where it is, it has never been found. It is likely a family is using it to store food somewhere in Ireland and they don't know its history.'
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