Richard Satchwell told detective he thought wife was 'still out there somewhere', trial hears

Alison O'Riordan

Richard Satchwell told a detective two years before his wife's body was discovered buried in a shallow grave beneath their Cork home that he "personally thought" she was "still out there somewhere", his trial has heard.

The Central Criminal Court jury heard that the accused man described crying on the evening he discovered his wife had left their home while one of their dogs licked up his tears.

He also told the interviewing officer that Tina Satchwell, who he said had mentioned leaving him hundreds of times, could be "nasty" and that he had previously tried to end his life because she was violent with him.

The jury in the trial heard on Tuesday that gardaí employed enhanced, witness-led interviewing techniques when questioning the accused about his wife's disappearance.

The trial has heard that on March 24th, 2017, Mr Satchwell told gardaí that his wife Tina Satchwelll had left their home four days earlier but that he had no concerns over her welfare, feeling she had left due to a deterioration in their relationship.

The accused formally reported Ms Satchwell missing the following May but her body was not discovered for over six years, when gardaí in October 2023 found her decomposed remains in a grave that had been dug underneath the stairs of her home.

In her opening address, Gerardine Small SC, prosecuting, told the jury that after the body was recovered, Mr Satchwell told gardaí that he lost his footing and fell to the ground when his wife tried to stab him with a chisel. He told detectives that he held her weight off with a belt but that in a matter of seconds, she was dead in his arms.

Mr Satchwell (58), with an address at Grattan Street, Youghal, Co Cork, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 45-year-old wife Tina Satchwell - nee Dingivan - at that address between March 19th and March 20th, 2017, both dates inclusive.

On Tuesday, Detective Sergeant David Noonan told Ms Small that he met Mr Satchwell by appointment on June 20th, 2021 at an interview suite in Blackpool in Cork to take a statement from him.

The witness said this was different to a traditional statement, where a garda sits down with the person and the statement is written out. He said an enhanced cognitive interview takes place away from a garda station and it is witness led.

Det Sgt Noonan told the accused that detail was very important and to take it that he [the det sgt] knew nothing. He asked Mr Satchwell to tell him things that he might consider insignificant and to tell him everything about Tina Satchwell "in as much detail as possible".

The accused said he met Tina in 1989 and had broken the law trying to buy things he couldn't afford for her. He said they would talk about anything and would often sit up all night and chat.

Mr Satchwell said when Tina's brother committed suicide in 2012 she went distant and things altered in their relationship.

He said he believed she was planning to leave him after this. He said she had mentioned 200 or 300 times over the previous 15 years that she was going to leave.

The accused said when their parrot 'Pearl' died it was like losing a child and the vet wanted to do an autopsy. He said Tina was "so bad" at this time and "in bits".

Mr Satchwell told the detective that when they moved to Youghal he thought Tina would be happy as she had always wanted to live there.

The accused said his wife could be "nasty" and if she got violent with him, minutes later it would be like it never happened; "she'd be apologising and crying".

He added: "She could lose her temper easily depending on the type of day she had, she could be mean, angry and could hit you, other times she'd just go up to bed. It would depend on the form at a particular time". He said he wouldn't hit Tina back and was brought up "to believe you respect women".

Mr Satchwell said he had only gone to the doctor with scratches and "you make excuses; don't tell the lads". He said cuts on his forehead made it sound bad; "when you spread it over 28 years it's not as frequent as it sounds".

He said he would put his arms around his wife in relief if she returned home. "It wouldn't cost nothing to pick up the phone, to ring 999, say I'm Tina and I'm safe," he added. He said the last four years hadn't been easy.

Mr Satchwell told the detective he had replaced timber on the stairs in Grattan Street. "I got the boards ready from the Flavins Builders yard up the road, they had to order them in and then I had to cut them to size".

The accused said he had used a saw to cut the stairs and he cut the wider bits by hand. Asked what else he did to the house, the accused said "the windows, the dry lining, the plasterboard up the stairs".

He said he had put plaster on top of the old wall and then he screwed the plasterboard onto it. "I used to be known in years past as jack of all trades and master of none".

Asked about the night before Tina went missing on March 19th, 2017, he recalled that Tina painted her nails on a shelf in the sitting room and told the detective that the same "red glitter" nail polish was still there on the mantelpiece; he had not moved it.

He said they got two pizzas that night and he ran her a bath, which he said was a "seven day a week job" for him.

He said "another nightly ritual" was rubbing baby oil or "some form of lotion into her body all over". He said he also used a foot file because she always got dry skin on her feet and every night he would give her feet a rub including on March 19th.

"The same thing seven nights a week, rub the oil into her minus the feet then she'd turn and go asleep. She's like a light switch, never had any trouble going asleep," he remarked.

He said when he later got into bed on the night of March 19th Tina had cuddled in beside him and put her head on his shoulder. He said there were no tears that night but that she used to spend a lot of time crying when she was going to bed.

Mr Satchwell said he left for Dungarvan around 10am on the morning Tina disappeared to get bird seed before going to Aldi. When he got back to Grattan Street the accused told the detective that Tina's keys were on the floor and her mobile on a countertop in the kitchen.

He said the two dogs being in the sitting room were very unusual. Later he spotted that two suitcases were gone and the money box in the attic - which he said had contained €26k - was "out with no money in it".

Mr Satchwell said he cried that evening as their dog Heidi sat in one chair and their other Ruby in the other. He said Heidi had licked up his tears. He said the rest of the week was a blur and he waited for "the phone to go".

When the statement was read back to Mr Satchwell by the detective on January 23rd, 2022, the accused said: "What I believe is that when Tina was planning to leave in 2013 that when we got Pearl, Tina was happy again - and decided to stay, depression can do stupid things to ya. I personally think she is still out there somewhere".

The trial continues on Wednesday before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of five men and seven women.