I was the first reporter let into Richard Satchwell's home – the chilling reason I knew in seconds Tina's body was there

The Irish Sun

2 days ago

THE first time I met ­Richard Satchwell was about eight months after his wife Tina disappeared.
He agreed to do the ­interview in the home they shared in Youghal.
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Richard Satchwell was found guilty of murdering his wife Tina
Credit: John Delea - The Sun Dublin
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Tina's remains were found at the couple's home in Youghal in 2023
Credit: Collect
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Ann Mooney was the first reporter allowed inside the Satchwell home by Richard
Credit: John Delea
I believe I was the first journalist he brought into the murder house on Grattan Street where he used the interview to appeal for Tina to come home.
The fact that I had covered
Myself and photographer John Delea arrived at the house and
In fact it was so bad that I stepped back out into the fresh air and told John I didn't know if I would be able to conduct the ­interview in the house because of the disgusting stench.
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But I had gotten the interview with him, one he had refused to many other journalists, so I pulled myself together and went in.
The living room was an absolute mess. The smell pervaded through everything. The two Jack Russell dogs — Heidi and Ruby — were allowed to run free everywhere, often peeing and pooing in the room without it having any effect on, or reprimand from,
The parrot was in a large long cage which had glass on the ­bottom.
This area was almost full of excrement.
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The sights, sounds and smells still stay with me to this day.
I found it hard to find a clean spot on which to sit on the settee.
DRINK CLAIM
When I look back now it was very evident that Richard had ­prepared for our visit and had staged the scene. On the coffee table between us was a very large high heel red shoe. In it was a ­bottle of Cava — although Richard referred to it as champagne.
That, he told me, was waiting for Tina to come home. He said he would open it, pour her a glass and welcome her back. He said he couldn't wait for it to happen.
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Holding the bottle he told me 'it will be opened when she walks through that door' — pointing towards the front entrance.
The one thing that struck me during the interview was the number of times he spoke about how much he loved Tina and that he 'would never lay a finger on her'.
CONTACT WITH GARDA
The more contact I had with Richard, the more I was convinced he had killed Tina. I believed that because he was a truck driver, and travelled all over the country, that he had hidden the body in a remote, hard to find location.
After leaving I got into my car and rang one of my
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I asked them if gardai had searched the house and was told they had, from top to bottom. I remember clearly saying: 'I never smelt anything like the smell in the house. I know the dogs are allowed to run around free doing whatever they want to do everywhere, but that still doesn't account for the vile smell permeating throughout the ground floor area that I was in.'
'THERE HAS TO BE A BODY THERE'
I actually said: 'Honestly there has to be a body there as nothing else could smell that bad.'
But even then I would not have even considered that there was a body buried in a grave underneath the stairs. Did I think Richard killed his wife back in November 2017 when I met him for the first time face to face? Yes, I did.
His declarations of love for her, his obsession with her and her appearance, and his absolute belief that she was his and his alone are all the hallmarks of a man who is prepared to kill so that no one else could have the love of his life.
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COULDN'T TAKE REJECTION
My belief is that Tina started to get a life when they moved to Youghal. She joined the gym, she started to meet people for coffee and to make friends — and I think she realised there was another life for her, one without Richard.
I always felt she told him the morning he killed her that she was leaving him. And he just couldn't take the loss and rejection and killed her. I think he buried her in the house so that he could always be close to her. His own personal secret shrine he could visit at will.
All his words and all his appeals for Tina to come home were said and done by a man who was a great actor playing the role of the devoted husband who just couldn't understand why his wife of 25 years had walked out the door leaving behind everything including her two precious dogs, whom she regarded as her kids.
"The more contact I had with Richard, the more I was convinced he had killed Tina. I believed that because he was a truck driver, and travelled all over the country, that he had hidden the body in a remote, hard to find location."
Ann Mooney
Tina never went anywhere without Heidi and Ruby. They were her babies, her fashion accessories and her love.
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Richard continued to use words of love and bewilderment in the interview when he said: 'I don't believe she is dead and I am living in hope that eventually she will get tired of being away and will come home to me.
'I LOVE HER DEEPLY'
'I love her deeply and this ­disappearance has not changed my feelings for her. I actually have money put away for when she returns so that we can head off together for a few weeks' break.
"I am living in a void. But I still believe she is going to turn up as suddenly as she left.
'She is a very independent woman, always has been and doing this (disappearing) is part of that independence.
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'I am heartbroken. I am still minding the two dogs and the ­parrot. They are a great consolation to me because she loved them so much. They give me the incentive to get up in the mornings.'
He said that every day he and Tina were together since they married, his life was 'one long honeymoon. She is my daylight — she has been my life since meeting her, even before I spoke to her.'
And he said, despite his claim Tina left with the almost €30,000 they had kept in cash in the house, he had enough money saved to continue doing up their home, ­stating: 'I want everything perfect for her when she comes home.'
'NEVER LAY A FINGER' CLAIM
Richard stressed in so many interviews that he would never lay a finger on her 'never once, in nearly 30 years of being together', adding: 'The most I have ever done to her is have a tight cuddle, loving the bones off her.'
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He described his life with her as idyllic from the minute he first met her in Rochdale in the UK in 1988 when she was still a teenager. They wed on her 20th birthday in 1991.
He claimed when he heard cops were searching Castlemartyr Woods following a viable tip-off that 'it was a kick in his stomach'.
Yet one of my sources told me that when the Gardai called to his house to tell him about the search, they knew by his reaction that Tina was probably not buried there.
'I am heartbroken. I am still minding the two dogs and the ­parrot. They are a great consolation to me because she loved them so much. They give me the incentive to get up in the mornings.'
Richard Satchwell
But they had to act on the tip they received and we all know what happened — there was not even a trace of the 45-year-old there.
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In interviews done near the woods, Richard claimed he had barely slept since being informed of the search. But before doing the interviews, the killer was laughing, joking and completely at ease.
The minute the interviews began he transformed into a heartbroken husband and with tears welling in his eyes appealed to the public to contact the Gardai with any info that would bring Tina home.
He said: 'I'm sick in my stomach. The sleep I actually did get, I just ­nodded off watching telly, and then woke up a couple of hours later, but that's about it. I feel sick.'
He feared he would struggle to cope if Tina's remains were found in the woods, something that was never going to happen because she was buried under the stairs.
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'I WON'T BE ABLE TO COPE'
With tears streaming down his face, he said: 'I find it difficult, because after the call I got from the Gardai and knowing what's going on behind me (the search) with barriers there, I'm trying to fill myself with hope.
'I've had people say to me, 'How will you cope if it turns out to be her?'. My answer to that is I won't be able to cope.
'I'm here and I'm just praying and hoping that like the search in Youghal, it all comes to nothing.'
Throughout the years after Tina disappeared, Satchwell was asked if he would take a lie detector test.
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'NOTHING TO HIDE'
He had an excuse for not taking one — yet always stressed: 'I have nothing to hide.'
He also denied being a possessive and controlling husband.
He said: 'Tina was always out and about on her own. Tina is not the type of personality to let ­anybody tell her what to do or control her. It is just not her.'
Richard also claimed he was not jealous of her, even though she was very good looking and distinctive.
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He said: 'Often if I was out and about and I saw something in a shop window and I knew it would be Tina's style, I would buy it. She is a great woman and I didn't have a bad word to say about her.'
But then immediately he said that Tina would lose it and hit him — but he never hit her back.
'FLASH TEMPER'
He claimed: 'She had a flash temper but there was no intent. She would be crying and apologising. There was no intent. The most I have ever done is hold her in my arms tightly until she calmed down. She was my life.'
He said he knew 100 per cent that Tina wasn't having an affair and that, at the time of her disappearance, their marriage was not in a bad place. She never spoke to him about leaving and that while he is not angry with her for doing so, he is 'disappointed'.
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He said: 'But if she came back my arms would go around her, there would be tears. I would make her a cup of tea, make sure she wasn't hungry, contact the guards and contact her family.'
In his personal appeal to his wife, again with the tears ­welling up, he said: 'I love you Tina and all I want is for us to be together again.
'I miss you and life is very empty without you here. I miss your smile and your laughter and without you there is no joy in my life.'
LEGAL THREATS
He added: 'My gut feeling is that she is alive and that she will come home. I just feel that I would know if she was dead.
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'I just can't give up hope. Without Tina I have nothing. I would be so happy if she just walked into the house. That is my dream and it would mean the world to me.'
Richard and I kept up contact and he usually answered his phone when I called, often leading up to the anniversaries of Tina's disappearance. Until he didn't.
The last contact I had from him was a text threatening to take legal action because I quoted him in a story when he hadn't spoken to me.
I texted him back to say if he had read the story properly, he would have seen the quotes were from previous chats we had as he hadn't answered my calls or texts.
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I didn't hear back from him and he continued to ignore any requests for interviews.
At the end of my original ­interview with him, photographer John suggested he and Richard could drive around the area.
The killer took John up to the pier area near the lighthouse with ­railings and a bench where he and Tina sat holding hands.
JUST A PERFORMANCE
Richard also took John to the sand dunes a short distance away where he proposed to Tina because they both loved the sea.
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John told me: 'It seemed to me that he was playing the game of deceit. He wanted to impress on us that he was the heartbroken husband and all he wanted was for Tina to come home.'
And finally as I was about to leave the Satchwell home, I asked Richard if after eight months he had given serious consideration to the fact that Tina was dead.
He looked me in the eye, put his hand on his heart and said: 'Ann, if my Tina was dead, I would know it here. I know she is going to walk through that door and then everything will be as it was.'
He was a great actor and he ­certainly could have won an Oscar.
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Richard claimed that he 'never lay a finger' on wife Tina
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Tina in 2016 with her dog Ruby and pet parrot