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Sky News AU
4 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
'Earning two months in two weeks': British expats reveal staggering $9,000 a fortnight salary as a FIFO worker in Australia
The possibility of earning more than $9,000 a fortnight as a Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) mine worker in Australia has seen Brits flock Down Under in droves. Cash-strapped expats from the UK have joined Australian citizens increasingly enticed by the pay packet on offer for FIFO work, particularly for roles in remote mines in Queensland and Western Australia. And it seems the cash benefits of working long, consecutive outside under the Australian sun outweigh the drawbacks. Caithilín Hughes, 26, from Belfast, Ireland, works long 12-hour days for 14 consecutive days under the Aussie sun as a machine operator in WA. She splits her time between the mine and her home in Perth and says she enjoys FIFO work for the "money game." "The average hourly wage for a machine operator is around $55. We work 12-hour days for 14 days straight. That's around $9,240 before tax," Caithilín told the Irish Independent last week. "Now I spend my days driving huge machines in the mines of Western Australia, earning in two weeks what would take some at home in Ireland, nearly two months to earn." Caithilín Hughes took to TikTok to reveal that her daily rate is about $55 per hour, which she said could total more than $600 per day. "Most jobs are probably going to range from $30 an hour to maybe $60 or $70 an hour," the 26-year-old said. "I work as a machine operator, so I can only really talk about what a machine operator makes. "Most people who come on a holiday working visa tend to work as machine operators. So, you're probably going to get paid from $45 to $65 an hour. "Probably most people will make the $50 to $55 range. So, based on $55 an hour, 12 hours a day, you're going to get paid $660 a day. The 26-year-old enjoys a six-day break in Perth before returning to work for two weeks at a time. She is an aspiring investigative journalist and hopes to one day fulfil her career goal in Belfast, but she is content with her life Down Under for now. Englishwoman Aimee Gale also took to TikTok to say she landed a sought-after role as a FIFO worker despite having limited experience. She said most companies are willing to hire people who meet the working requirements. Those include a working holiday visa, a police check, a white card, and certifications for working at heights, confined spaces, and gas testing. "I must have contacted around 30 different agencies, maybe even more, just calling them, emailing them, and if I didn't get a response, I would go up to the recruitment agency and show my interest that way," Aimee said. "A lot of people didn't even respond. "They also said they were looking for somebody who had a year experience or at least six months." Aimee said being a FIFO is not always rosy; it also means being "eaten alive" by mosquitoes and grappling with intense heat. "It's so, so hot, and you're in your full PPE [protective gear] all day," the expat said. She also described her first work experience with rollers, where people operate a machine to compact materials like soil and asphalt, as "awful". "Then, I was doing TA and hose tech, so (it was) simpler, but still hard. Those were 12-hour days," Aimee said. "So, you've just got to go in open-minded. You can't go in thinking, 'Oh my gosh, this is going to be amazing, and I'm going to meet so many new people', which you do, and it's amazing, but there are downsides to things as well. It's not all sunshine and rainbows." Aimee spends her time off work enjoying snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef and soaking up Australia's rays. Meanwhile, Irish model and beauty pageant titleholder Grainne Gallanagh offered a rare glimpse into her experience as a FIFO worker in a WA mine. Grainne is from Buncrana, Ireland, and relocated to Perth with her fiancé, Ryan Coleman, in March 2023. After a brief holiday, the couple embarked on FIFO work in WA's rugged red dirt mines. It's there the former Miss Universe Ireland spent 12-hour shifts driving trucks under the scorching Australian sun. Despite the harsh conditions, Grainne described the mining work as an exciting adventure that she would highly recommend to others and acknowledged the benefits of well-paid mine work. Grainne was named 'Employee of the Month' in her first month on the job, followed by 'Employee of the Year,' beating hundreds of other workers. "I was so nervous about starting this job and how I would be received in an environment where I had no idea what I was doing, and it was mostly men," she said on social media last September. "But I was so pleasantly surprised; they have genuinely been so unbelievably patient, helpful, kind, and have made me laugh every single day. And the girls have been a dream."
Irish Independent
8 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Death of an Irish institution? New Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll reveals how few go to the pub every week
While the local watering hole was once regarded as an 'Irish institution', the study found only 9pc of people said they go to the pub once a week, 7pc went every fortnight and 19pc said they went just once a month. The cost of alcohol in bars is believed to be one reason why many don't pull up a bar stool any more. Meanwhile, Gen Z – those 28 and under – are less likely to drink alcohol at all, with many prioritising hobbies, health and wellness. Michael Kilcoyne, chair of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, said the fact that the Irish pub was no longer popular, is 'worrying from a community and societal aspect'. 'Pubs down the country have been affected badly due to a lack of transport,' Mr Kilcoyne said. 'And in general, the price of alcohol in pubs is too high for a lot of people struggling with high rent and mortgages. 'Others are trying to save for a mortgage and many are living in their parents' box rooms, just unable to afford a night out at the pub. 'This means pub staff will lose their jobs and also impacts the coming together of people as a community in Ireland. 'The pub is where friends, family and colleagues always met and what have we got if we're not meeting up to socialise? A lack of community, isolation, loneliness and a lack of community spirit. 'That's really a very bad thing and it seems this Government has switched off to the reality of what people are going through in Ireland today. 'People just don't have the money to go to the pub to socialise or even go on holiday due to the cost of living and wages not being high enough to meet it.' The survey found 40pc of people can't afford to take a summer holiday this year while 55pc said they could and 5pc were unsure. Pub landlords contacted by the Irish Independent weren't available to talk or didn't wish to comment on the issue. But the CEO of the Vintner's Federation of Ireland, Pat Crotty, a former publican, told RTÉ: 'It's very difficult. The net position for the publican outside of an urban area is that he's dying slowly.' He added: 'Even for pubs relying on tourists, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has shown tourist numbers are down at a time when they should be up.' Mr Crotty said publicans are in a difficult situation with regards to legal and financial obligations, and very few can continue in the position they are in.
Irish Independent
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Over 20,000 people attend fourth day of Bloom
Today at 13:44 Over 20,000 people flocked to the Phoenix Park in Dublin today for the fourth day of Bord Bia Bloom. Around 100,000 visitors are expected to attend the five-day festival over the June bank holiday weekend, finishing on Monday. Celebrity chef Donal Skehan had a smashing time during his cooking demonstration at the festival over the weekend, when the stage oven shattered during his segment, sending glass and pieces of the oven towards the chef while cooking Korean chicken. 'When you're in the kitchen, disasters may happen, that is probably the worst thing that has even happened to me,' Mr Skehan told the laughing crowd. 'Had a smashing day. It's been ten years but I'm thrilled to be back with a bang,' he shared on his social media after the demo. 'I always get asked what my worst kitchen disaster has been, well it happened today live in front of 100s of people. 'A huge thank you to the amazing audience I've ever had a for a cookery demo, you honestly kept me going during the craziest moment in the kitchen. I will remember this forever. 'No home cooks were harmed in the making. The incredible crew at Bord Bia had the oven replaced in less than an hour.' Following the interruption, Mr Skehan carried on with the cooking demonstration and told the crowd 'it's back to business'. The sun was shining for most of the day between scattered showers, with temperatures reaching 18 degrees. Tomorrow is set to be mostly dry with spells of sunshine with highest temperatures of 17 degrees. Meanwhile, Bloom designer Joe Eustace said he has looked up to the garden designers at Bloom since he was a child. ADVERTISEMENT 'There's photos of me as a child in a boogie at Bloom,' he told the Irish Independent. "I idolised the designers the same way that someone else my age may idolise a football player or a rugby player. "To be up here now, competing on the same stage as them, learning from the designers, they've all been absolutely fantastic, and taking me under their wing. 'It's a real watershed moment for me, because I'm here now, and I'm in the position that I would have looked up to a lot when I was a kid. "And I just hope that there's some kid at the show this year that was in the same position as me, and that they can look and see that it is possible and they can come and bring new life into the industry the same way that I fell into it,' he added. Mr Eustace from Newbridge, who is a co-founder of Online Garden Designs, was the first winner of the Boom Bia Bloom cultivating talent initiative in 2022. He has participated in Ireland's largest gardening festival ever since, and is currently completing a master's at UCD. His second show garden at last year's Bloom, the Citroen Floating Lounge Garden, won a gold medal. "My father was a landscape contractor, and so when I was 13 years old, I was out helping him. I had a shovel in my hand, and from there, it's built on. 'I did my first show garden in Bloom in 2023, and I've delivered a garden ever since, I've never looked back, so it's been a great experience so far. And long may it last," he added. Mr Eustace designed the Support Garden this year, sponsored by the Decision Support Service, which won a silver gilt medal at the festival. It has a steel fireplace at its centre, which symbolises the donor of an Enduring Power of Attorney. The garden has two bespoke chairs and is surrounded by a steel pergola, which supports the fireplace and stands for the network of trust built between the donor, their attorney, and the people that surround them. 'What it represents is the profoundly vulnerable moment where someone has to confront the idea of advanced planning, so someone who may be fearful that, in the future, they may make it in an accident or develop a decision impairment disorder such as Alzheimer's or dementia,' said Mr Eustace. 'Essentially, what this garden is all about is planting the seeds now that will flower in the future, and that's what advanced planning is about. "The metaphor of the space is that the central fireplace represents a person who is at the centre of one of these agreements, and then this support network that spans throughout the space represents the friends and family of that person and the decision support service. 'The fireplace is floating and it's being lifted, so the support network that's in place is supporting the person even when they can't support or decide for themselves. 'The planting for the space is chosen for that idea of support, so it's planting that's going to support pollinators,' he added. Una FitzGibbon, director of marketing at Bord Bia said: 'Bloom 2025 has been an incredible success so far, and we are thrilled with the enthusiastic participation from both visitors and exhibitors alike. 'The feedback from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive, and it's clear that Bloom continues to deliver a memorable experience for all. As we approach the final day, the forecast is looking good, so we encourage everyone to come, make the most of this fantastic event and grab a bargain on the final day.'
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Irish Independent
‘Monstrous' headstones being erected in Tipperary cemetery in the middle of the night
That was the claim made by Cashel councillor Liam Browne at the May meeting of the Tipperary-Cahir-Cashel Municipal District, who said that Tipperary County Council were turning a blind eye to the enforcement of by-laws in Cormac's Cemetery in Cashel which governs the height that headstones can be. Responding to Cllr Browne's calls, Cllr Roger Kennedy said that 'it's not fair on the ordinary people, who have a gravestone under four foot six, and the one beside it has an eight foot high monstrosity.' Speaking to the Irish Independent, Cllr Browne said that council by-laws are being ignored not just by people putting in headstones, but by the council as well who should be policing and enforcing the bylaws. "We have Tipperary County Council burial by-laws and to be quite frank, what I said at the meeting was that they're being ignored. "They're not just being ignored by the people putting up the headstones, which are out of size and scale for what they should be, but they're also being ignored by the council who should be policing the headstones that go in, and once they go in, there seems to be an acceptance by the council that there's nothing they can do about it,' Cllr Browne said. Large headstones are being erected at nighttime, Cllr Browne said, with Tipperary County Council officials encountering a contractor who was putting in an 'illegally sized' headstone under the cover of darkness. "The council did come across a contractor putting in an illegally sized headstone a couple of months ago, and they stopped the contractor from putting it in, they told them they were not an authorised contractor, and the contractor left, but they came back two days later at two or three o'clock in the morning and finished off the headstone,' Cllr Browne explained. "They then basically rang the council and said look, it's up now and ye can do what ye like with it, ye can take it down if ye like but as far as he was concerned, he had fulfilled what he was supposed to do, which was put it up,' the Cashel-based councillor added. Calling on the council to enforce the bylaws that are in place, Cllr Browne said that they should go after the contractors who are installing these headstones. "The council know that this is happening and whether they should be going after the contractor, I think they should because the contractor's obviously broken the law, but they don't, and then the families who are putting the headstones up, as sensitive a subject as it is, if you don't address it, I do believe it's going to get worse,' Mr Browne added. ADVERTISEMENT The Tipperary County Council burial ground bylaws state that headstones should be no taller than 4' 11', or 7' in the case of a Celtic Cross, but headstones that far exceed these rules have been installed in Cormac's Cemetery. At the May meeting of the Tipperary-Cahir-Cashel MD, Cathaoirleach of the district Cllr John Crosse said that the council were not ignoring the issue and that a meeting and a site visit would be held to discuss the issue. 'I have to disagree [with Cllr Crosse] on that, we are ignoring it, we have been ignoring it, and we've been ignoring it in more than Cashel, we've been ignoring it in graveyards across the county because Cashel is not the only place that have complained,' Cllr Browne said. Action needs to be taken on these 'illegal' headstones according to the Cashel councillor, saying that people should be made aware that if they erect a headstone that doesn't comply with the burial ground bylaws, it can be taken down. "As much as I hate to think that it would have to be done, there may be a case, it has been done in the past, there is precedent of taking headstones back down again, you cannot just say look, if a headstone's gone up and it's in breach of a law, that it stays up, there's other cases of breaches of planning legislation around the county, you could look at modular homes, you could talk about extensions, but they would be very quick to move on the people involved, and use the law to have them taken back down again,' Cllr Browne said. "I've had conversations with members of the travelling community, and that suggestion has been made to them and some of them are quite happy with the suggestion that yes, they can still put up what they would consider 'fancy' memorials as they put it, but they would still have to remain within the bylaws,' the independent councillor added. "I believe that in too many cases, too many people talk for the traveller community, and not to the traveller community … sometimes if you sit down and have a chat with the local travelling community in the towns who are long-standing members of the town, due to the sensitivity of this, I don't think we chat enough to the travelling community themselves and see what can be accepted,' the Cashel councillor concluded. Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
Sunday World
2 days ago
- Sunday World
The body under the stairs: How Richard Satchwell almost got away with murder
In our latest Special Investigation, the Sunday World looks at the story behind Richard Satchwell's murder of his wife Tina. Richard Satchwell turned to his brother and told him that he was going to marry the Irish teenager when his first saw her. He never forgot the date, the 3rd March 1989, when he laid eyes on the 18-year-old from County Cork. Tina had just arrived to live in England with her grandmother Florence and her uncle Frank who she had grown up with as her brother. She was glamourous and outgoing in contrast to his quiet demeanour. While for him it was love at first sight it took Tina Dingivan a little longer before eventually falling for his personality and the couple became inseparable. But the trouble with this tragic romance story is that that most of it has been told through the words of Richard Satchwell. He is, to understate it, an unreliable narrator. Fast forward to March 2017, Tina who had turned 45 the previous November is dead and buried under the stairs in their home at Grattan Street in Youghal a town on Ireland's south coast. He tells a story of how Tina had left him taking their €26,000 saving, leaving behind her beloved chihuahua Ruby after threatening for years that she would do so. Not only that, but this 5'5' eight stone woman was capable of sudden and capricious violence that he endured in silence for years. He told this story to her family, to the gardaí and to the media during which he made tearful appeals for her to come home all the while known exactly where he had put his wife's now decomposing body For six-and-a-half years he told the same story. He almost got away with murder. The Satchwells earlier in their relationship THE EARLY YEARS Tina had grown up in Beechfield Estate, Fermoy with Florence, across the main road from her niece Lorraine Howard in St Bernard's Place who was three years her junior. They were close friends and spent a lot of time together, making the journey to school together, playing in each other's houses. They were best friends until the day they discovered they were in fact half-sisters. Mary Collins who was Lorriane's mother was also Tina's biological mum and the discovery came as a shock. Approaching her confirmation time, usually when children are 12 years of age in Ireland, Tina got her birth certificate and learned the truth. Lorriane would say in court that Tina was resentful that Lorriane got to be brought up in their mother's and their relationship changed as a result. They would from time to time have rows and even screaming matches. Tina saw it as her having been given away as a child which Lorriane said was not that way at all. When Tina moved to the UK it was part of pattern where Tina would be in her life and then not in her life at all. There were good years and bad years between them and the rows always came back to Tina's sense of being abandoned as a child. Lorraine was aware at some point that Tina had met an Englishman and first met Richard Satchwell with Tina at their mother's house in Fermoy when she would have been aged 15. During their early years together, Tina and Richard would have moved back and forth between England and Ireland, returning to the UK to get married in Oldham on Tina's 20th birthday. Tina Satchwell with her husband Richard from Youghal Co Cork Anyone who knew them and who were called to give evidence at the Central Criminal Court said they were always together. Wherever Tina was going, Richard would also certainly be in her company. Tina didn't drive and mostly didn't work, so she relied on husband to get to where she wanted to be. Lorraine would also say in court that Tina loved her clothes and was high-maintenance something that Richard obviously struggled to cope with, devoted as he was to fulfilling her every wish and that she was the one who wore the trousers. TROUBLE IN PARADISE It seemed their marriage may not have been the idyllic relationship Richard had hoped for. He would later say in a Garda interview that around 1994 he took an overdose of tablets in response to being attacked by Tina who had to call a doctor to their home. He also voluntarily told the gardaí that around 2002 he got into financial trouble and succumbed to the temptation to cash in some stolen cheques. He then went back to the UK where he worked for a while, sending money home to Tina to whom he spoke every night before she came to join him in the UK. He eventually decided to return to Ireland to face up to what he had done and spent a period of time in prison. According to local newspaper records it wasn't the only time he was imprisoned for criminal offences. The Corkman reported how Satchell, described as a self-employed window fitter, had been caught with a stolen and altered tax disc on his car in January 2001, fined €850 and given 10 days behind bars. It was hardly a crime a person would commit if the window fitting business was proving to be a lucrative earner. They moved again back to Fermoy and Glanworth and there was a stint in a city flat in Cork where Tina worked for a short time in a clothes shop. There was tragedy to come for Tina and her extended family who were also dealing with an incident which, according to Lorraine, divided the family straight down the middle. She had not spoken with Tina in the 15 years before her murder in 2017. Tina's brother Tom died by suicide in 2012 which Richard would say left her devastated and changed her moods and personality. From then, he said, their relationship was no longer a sexual one, her moods had become darker and the abrupt violence she would sometimes unleash became worse. The veracity of this description of Tina is known only to Richard, who said he tried to hide her secret and never admitted to being scraped, punched, bitten and cut in what he said were sudden and vicious outbursts. Those he told of the violence said he did so only after she had gone missing in March 2017, while both Lorraine and Sarah said they had never witnessed the behaviour he had described. The only hint was a conversation Sarah overheard as teenager when she walked into a conversation between Tina and her grandmother to hear Tina mention that she had slapped Richard. But she didn't hear the start of the exchange or how it ended and couldn't put those comments in context. Tina Satchwell There were more petty crimes committed by Richard who said he was caught shop-lifting in 2014 and 2016 in Clonmel and Cork city. Their finances were not in good shape and this would later be confirmed in a report by a forensic accountant from the Garda Economic Crime Bureau which detailed how they were overdrawn on both their bank account and their online account with retailer Littlewoods. There was also the strange evidence of €18,000 being collected and sent off again via wire transfer companies that left the couple €8,000 less well-off than what they had started out with. Emails later retrieved from Richard's laptop would later suggest this was a torturous attempt starting in 2015 at adopting two marmoset monkeys named Thelma and Terry from an organisation called International Monkey Rescue. It is not clear exactly what the end goal had been for the Satchwells but it is likely, as suggested in court, they were the victims of a scam. THE MOVE TO YOUGHAL The house they had acquired in Fermoy was sold for €125,000 and they bought a dilapidated three-storey terraced house in Youghal in May 2016. Richard said he had hoped Tina, whose sadness had become worse, would be happier there, a town where she had always liked to walk along the shore. One of the few other things to have lifted her spirits in recent years was their parrot Pearl, which they bough for €450 and so the couple went to live there with the bird and their dogs Ruby and Heidi. They were a quiet living couple, non-drinkers whose main social outlet in life was travelling around Munster to car-boot sales where they bought and sold bric-a-brac and clothes. Richard did the selling while Tina, with Ruby tucked into a Juicy Couture carry case, went bargain hunting for yet more shoes, make-up sets, clothes, hand-bags and whatever fashion accessories were on offer. Her clothes shopping was prodigious and Richard had converted the rooms on the second floor of their Grattan Street house into a walk-in wardrobe with shelves and rails for her collection. In the attic there were boxes of unworn shoes and her favourite Doc Marten boots. Tina was in great form during the Christmas period in December 2016 when she met her cousin Sarah Howard. She would say in court how she was close to Tina who, when she was young, would take her to places, including downtown in Fermoy to have her ears pierced as a five-year-old. They had a great chat when Tina visited Fermoy along with her dogs, little knowing that it would be the last time she would see her. There was another setback for Tina in January, according to Richard, when Pearl the parrot died. They were bereft and cried for weeks and were upset enough that an autopsy was carried out by their vet. By March a new parrot had been found for sale on the internet and despite Richard's caution about getting the exact same type they went ahead and bought the bird on St Valentine's Day, calling it Valentine. As Richard feared the new addition was not as loveable as Pearl, but Tina persisted in trying to train it into the perfect pet Pearl had been. In a phrase repeated by those who gave evidence, the dogs and the parrot were like children to Tina and as with Richard, inseparable. In his statements Richard would say the same and that while had wanted children Tina did not and it was a decision he respected. He said this in the context that he had sacrificed a lot for Tina, having lost all contact with his own family in England because his mother hated the Irish. No 3 Grattan Street, Youghal, Co Cork, where the Satchwells lived. Photo: Kevin McNulty During their time in Grattan Street Richard continued to work on the house which was over 100 years old and had been empty for some years before they moved in. He had fitted the windows, put in new dry-lining and plastered the walls. He said Tina would sometimes be happy 'rolling away' as they painted the interior. But it was rough and ready with no central heating and a house-proud Tina was not yet ready to receive any guests there. When they would arrive home in the evening from a walk or a drive it would just be them and their pets when the door closed behind them. The casual friends they made on the car-boot sale circuit would recall Tina as a bubbly, outgoing, talkative and friendly. It was one of those people, John Keohane, who was the last person known to have spoken to Tina apart from her husband Richard at the Rathcormac car boot sale on 19 March 2017. His own wife had grown up close to members of the Dingivan family in Fermoy and they always had a few words for each other. The 'lovely' Tina had bought an outfit and some perfume prompting him poke fun that she must have a man lined up for a date. She told him that there was only one man for her and that she loved Richard. THE FINAL NIGHT In an account that he would go on to repeat for six and a half years they left Rathcormac that day and drove home to Youghal. He handed Tina cup of tea and then busied himself emptying the car-boot sale goods from his silver 2005 Limerick-reg Nissan Primera car, according to Richard in a detailed description of their finals hours together he would give in a lengthy Enhanced Cognitive Interview in June 2021 to Detective Sergeant David Noonan. He painted a picture of domestic bliss of a couple so in synch that Richard is able to anticipate her needs as she settles into an unchanging evening routine that bore all the hallmarks of ritual. Unloading the car didn't take too long, Tina had bought very little compared to usual trips to the sales, picking up just a make-up set and a mini fold-up travel hair-dryer. They discussed what pizza to order from Apache Pizza, availing of their €21.99 deal that allowed them to buy two, keeping one for the next day. They settled on one with cajun chicken and mushrooms and the other topped with chicken and sweet corn. He walked to the restaurant to collect the food and two Cokes, returning home to eat in silence. He said that Tina always insisted on no talking while they were eating. He had turned on the immersion heater and next began to run a bath for Tina, a nightly event with plenty of suds and the water hot enough to boil potatoes as Richard put it. As she soaked in the hot water Richard would remove the nail varnish from her toes and then lay two bath towels on the bed ready for Tina. Once out of the bath she would flop on the bed, Richard recalling how the steam rose from her naked body. He then rubbed oil on her body massaging her in silence, spending 30 minutes carefully rubbing each foot, taking particular care on the space between her toes. He would use a file on any hard skin, before leaving to take his own quick bath and to have a shave. On his return Tina was in her pyjamas and ready for sleep, he would bring in Ruby to sleep in her little kennel after checking on Heidi. Some of these details of their final night were added in another interview with gardaí when he was later arrested for murder in October 2023. Tina Satchwell with one of her beloved dogs They snuggled down together to fall asleep wordlessly with Richard waking early the next morning, Monday 20 October 2017, sometime before 6 a.m. which he said has been a life-long habit. Putting on jeans and t-shirt he had a coffee, changed the bird paper in the cage and gave Valentine some fruit. He then went out to the shed where he had been plumbing in a washing machine, working there until around 9 a.m. when the dogs ran into the garden signaling that Tina had gotten out of bed and was downstairs. The version of what happened next is one that Richard clung to and to which he added extra details in the subsequent six and a half years. He went inside making tea and toast for Tina which he brought into her. In a brief conversation she asked him to go Aldi in Dungarvan to buy food for the parrot, such errands being a commonplace task, according to Richard. He changed his clothes and set off for Dungarvan, stopping to light a candle at church in Grange in memory of Florence who had passed away on the same day in 1997 and one for Pearl. He continued on his journey and it was some time around 2p.m. when he opened the door and went back inside Grattan Street. He was surprised to see Tina's keys on the hall floor which he picked up. He then found her phone in the kitchen and presumed she had just gone out and had forgotten to take it. The most unusual thing though was the fact that Tina had left but had not taken Ruby or Heidi with her, a very rare occurrence. As time passed he grew curious and checked the sunbed upstairs in case Tina was there. With no sign of her return he went up stairs again, this time noticing that a box, normally behind Tina's boxes of shoes in the attic room, which contained their €26,000 savings was open and empty. Two suitcases were also gone and it sunk in that Tina had probably left him. The next few days were a blur, he'd tell Det Sgt Noonan, the first night sitting on his 'fat arse' crying as Ruby licked the tears from his face. He thought she would come back and likely had just gone to Fermoy, staying with family there. The following Friday, 24 March, he had an appointment with his doctor in Fermoy and while there he called to Tina's relatives in the town who hadn't seen her. He decided to walk into Fermoy Garda Station to tell then that Tina and gone and he just wanted to find out that she was safer. Conor Gately was on the officer on duty that evening and spoke to Richard who he described as being a matter of fact and not over emotive as he told the version of how she was gone along with the money on his return home. Richard wasn't worried that she was at risk of self-harm and suggested she had left the dogs behind to make it easier for her find accommodation. Garda Gately said he advised him to file a missing person's report and entered the details of what Richard had reported on the garda Pulse system. THE LIES 2017 – 2021 That Friday is the first day that someone other than Richard Satchwell knew that Tina was gone and her cousin Sarah Howard immediately rang Tina's phone when she heard the news. When it went unanswered she tried to call Richard who eventually called her back and she asked what had happened and why the dogs weren't with Tina. He told her that they had an argument and had thrown a cup at him and the day before she disappeared had told him she had wasted 28 years of her life with, something that Sarah said she had never heard before. Tina Satchwell In the following weeks she texted Richard to ask for any news who in turn had asked her to make contact with relatives to see if they had heard from Tina. Strangely, one text from Richard was a question asking if she wanted a chest freezer he wanted to off-load. She didn't reply. In court she'd later say it was unusual because Richard wasn't the type to give something away and cited an instance at a car boot sale when her children picked up a CD and a nail varnish from his stall he charged them both 50 cent each. Gardaí in Youghal learned of the report made to their colleagues and sought to follow up with Richard but had initially been unable to catch him at home until 2 May. When Garda Thomas Keane did get an answer at the house he spoke to Satchwell at the door who repeated the story of how she had left but he was not overly concerned and expected her to return home when she had cleared her head. Like his colleague in Fermoy the officer advised him to make a missing person's report. The officer also carried out a social welfare check to see if she had signed on to collect benefits anywhere else, but nothing was found. On 11 May, Richard finally heeds the advice to report Tina missing and made a statement to Garda James Butler in which he added that Tina had run up debts and probably suffered from an undiagnosed psychiatric condition which had been getting worse over the years and she had become more volatile and was violent towards him. Tina was more likely to lash out than harm herself, he told the garda. He also said that Tina had always told him that in the event of her leaving he would get the guards after him if he tried to find her. Satchwell expanded on his story that he had suffered violence at Tina's hands in a more detailed statement a few days later. He told Garda Aidan Dardis she could fly off the handle and veer from telling him she hated him to falling into his arms in the next. He was a walkover and she wore the trousers according to Richard, and her mood had worsened since Tom's death. At least three or four times a year he was subjected to real violence that left him bloodied and scarred. Tina was already dead at this time and now he was bent on assassinating her character. With investigation upgraded to a missing person report the gardaí carried out a trawl of CCTV, made house to house enquiries, ran a social media campaign and put out media appeals which were ultimately fruitless, according the Sergeant in Charge at Youghal, John Sharkey. A decision was taken that there was a possible criminal element to the case. Tina Satchwell It fell to him seek a search warrant from the District Court on the grounds that an assault causing harm may have taken place at the Satchwells' house. On 7 June, 48 days after Richard said Tina had left, a divisional search squad went into the property. Satchwell was on the road and not at home and was told by phone the search was going ahead. Officers who entered described it as being in a shambles. Crime scenes investigator Cathal Whelan said the house was untidy, unkempt, there was dog faeces on the floor, the bird cage was dirty and there were dishes that appeared not to have been washed in a long time. The second-floor room was crammed with Tina's clothes including unopened packages. Other officers took laptops and documents from the house in the search which otherwise yielded little in terms of clues at that stage as to Tina's whereabouts. Later in the evening a member of the Forensic Technical Bureau arrived and used Blue Star, a chemical that illuminates any trace of blood but there was nothing there to be found. The next day Richard Satchwell went into Midelton Garda Station to give another statement where this time he was met by Sgt Daniel Holland and again Richard took the opportunity to express his love for Tina while at the same time pointing out what he said was her deteriorating mental health and her violence which included being twice knocked unconscious by her. 'I took her abuse because she was in pain from life, she isn't a bad person and I don't want to paint her that way,' said Richard. He knew gardaí had been in contact with Tina's half-sister and mother Mary Collins and when he learned they had been asked if he had been violent to Tina he told Det Sgt Holland he was shocked and felt sick. 'I am destroyed by this, I just want Tina back.' Asked about the mysterious money transfers he said that it was all explained in the emails which the gardaí would be able to see on his laptop. To continue our examination of the Satchwell murder, you can read part two right here .
