Richard Satchwell told gardaí he believed wife Tina was 'still out there somewhere' two years before her remains found

Richard Satchwell (pictured) formally reported Tina missing more than six years before her body was discovered.

Murder accused Richard Satchwell told gardaí that he personally believed his wife Tina was “still out there somewhere”, two years before her remains were discovered buried underneath a stairwell in their home.

On Tuesday, the jury in the trial were read out a transcript of an “enhanced cognitive interview” conducted by Detective Sergeant David Noonan with Mr Satchwell on 20 June 2021.

As Mr Satchwell gave this statement, he told gardaí that he had initially believed Tina had left him to get her “own back on him” for leaving her for a time in 2002, while also saying that he had self-harmed following domestic abuse he’d received from his wife.

He claimed she threatened to leave him “200-300 times” and had done so again at some point in the six months before she disappeared.

He also told gardaí at the time that “anything short of being in a coma for four years”, he couldn’t see “any future” with her.

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 19 and March 20, 2017, both dates inclusive.

The court has previously heard that he told gardaí on 24 March, 2017 that his wife 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.

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

Last week, the jury heard media interviews and appeals Mr Satchwell made about his wife’s disappearance. The prosecution alleges that Mr Satchwell had already murdered Tina prior to making these public appeals.

Tina Satchwell.

In her opening address last week, prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small SC told the jury that after the body was recovered in October 2023, 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.

In court on Tuesday, the transcript of the witness statement taken by gardaí two years prior to the discovery of Tina Satchwell’s body was read out in full by Ms Small.

Detective Sergeant told the court that the enhanced cognitive interview was the “gold standard of taking a witness statement” and is “witness-led”.

“You will be doing the talking,” he told Mr Satchwell at the time, speaking at length at the detail he wanted to hear.

He asked Mr Satchwell to tell him “everything in as much detail as possible about Tina”, which included what happened on the days prior to when she was last seen as well as delving into numerous other aspects of their lives.

During the lengthy interview, Mr Satchwell said he believed that his wife planned to leave him after her brother Tom died by suicide. "The tears went on a lot from 2012 on," he said. 

Violent

He also said she could become violent with him from time to time.

“Could she be nasty? Yeah,” he said. “If she got violent, ten minutes later it could be like it never happened.” 

Mr Satchwell said that when Tina was in one of her “bad spells” in the mid-1990s, he took a box of tablets but he didn’t “take enough”.

“When you spread it over 28 years it’s not as frequent as it sounds,” he said.

He said that after Tom’s death in 2012, they “never took sexually” again and he “never used to push her” as it was “her decision”.

The accused also referenced Tina’s belief she may have been abused as a child during the interview.

Mr Satchwell had told the gardaí that he last saw his wife on Monday 20 March 2017. The day before, he said they went to sell items at a car boot sale. When they got home, he got them a meal deal from Apache Pizza and ran her a bath.

After her bath, he said he rubbed oil into her and then also rubbed each of her feet for 30 minutes. He said he did the same thing for her “seven nights a week”.

Mr Satchwell described this as "one of her better days" and that he didn't recall "any tears". 

The next day, he went from Youghal to Dungarvan to buy bird seed for the parrot they owned and said this was the last time he saw her. When he returned, he said she was gone. He also said he found a cash box they’d kept in the attic with around €26,000 in it had been emptied.

He said he wasn’t worried about the money as she “wouldn’t leave [it] with me, as I’d spend it” on clothes or other items for her.

Nevertheless, Mr Satchwell said he was worried and told gardaí that he didn’t sleep that evening, as he was cried and one of his dogs licked up his tears.

“That entire week was like groundhog day,” he said. “I didn’t even take the dogs outside for a walk.” 

That Friday, he said he an appointment with a doctor that Tina had been aware of and that this doctor was the first person to suggest to him that she might have “gone off with somebody”.

Mr Satchwell, however, said he didn’t believe she had done so.

Detective Sergeant Noonan posed questions to Mr Satchwell at some points during the interview. He asked the witness to go into minute detail of the routes he had taken to the car boot sale the day before he said he has last seen her, and to and from Dungarvan on the day itself.

He also asked Mr Satchwell about work he had done to their house in Youghal, which the accused said included doing the windows and the stairs in the home.

“That’s why I found it so hard for first 12 months,” he said. 

“I couldn’t stick it in the house without her. I couldn’t stick the silence in the house.”

After the interview, Mr Satchwell was given the opportunity at a later date to see if he wanted to add to what he said. 

He told gardaí that he believed Tina had planned on leaving him following the death of her brother but that she had become "happy again" so stayed at the time, adding that "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.