Cork murder trial hears Richard Satchwell admit burying wife's body during garda interview

The court also heard him say he buried her under the stairs of their home, and placing a bunch of tulips on her body as 'there was no taking it back'

Richard Satchwell sat in the accused’s box, face buried so deeply in his hands that no one could see his face, as a video of the interview was played to court. File picture

Murder accused Richard Satchwell broke down in tears as he admitted burying his wife under the stairs of their home, placing a bunch of tulips on her body as “there was no taking it back”. 

The admission was contained in a garda interview recorded at Cobh Garda Station when Mr Satchwell was arrested for murder after human remains were found in a shallow grave under a concrete floor beneath a stairwell at the Satchwell’s home in October, 2023.

He said that he got up on March 20, 2017, made his late wife Tina Satchwell a special breakfast, putting mandarins and grapes in a bowl and covering them with yoghurt and making her her usual toast and tea. “I always tried to make her feel special,” he said.

But he then saw her at the bottom of the stairs, and he said “she just flew at me”. “I went flying back onto the floor,” Mr Satchwell said in the video interview.

He said he took the belt from her bathrobe and held it up to her neck. “It was horrible,” he said through tears. “It just stopped,” he said, and “she fell down on top of me” lying dead in his arms.

“I honestly didn’t know what to do. I held her for 20 minutes or half an hour. The two dogs were there, just sitting there. They came over and started licking her.

“I just lay there. I kissed her on the head. There was no taking it back.” 

He collected his social welfare payment from the post office and went to the church and lit a candle for Ms Satchwell, for her deceased grandmother, who she had viewed as a mother, and for their recently deceased parrot Pearl, he said.

“When I got back to Youghal I went to our favourite spot and tried to think about what to do,” he said.

His wife was “a beautiful woman,” he said. But her face was distorted with anger as she lay dead in their home. He wanted to lay roses with his wife’s remains but could not find any so put tulips with her instead, he said.

“I’ve got no excuses for not coming forward. But once it was done […] I couldn’t take it back.” 

'Rituals'

He described “rituals” the couple had before the killing. Tina Satchwell lay on the bed, steam rising off her naked body, after a long bath the night before she was killed.

Mrs Satchwell would take two-hour baths in water "so hot you could boil potatoes in it", Mr Satchwell said in a garda interview after he was arrested for her murder. “I ran the bath, I tried to get as many suds as I could,” he said, as his late wife had “loved suds”. 

He took her nail polish off, as he said he did “for years” every Sunday before a bath. He gave her towels following the bath and she walked ahead of him to their bedroom.

“She lay on the bed naked, steam coming off her body,” he said. He would rub oil on her body and talcum powder into her feet. 

He also filed any rough skin on her feet – another custom they had, he said. He gave her a foot rub every night, he said, but the couple had not had sex in many years.

He said that his late wife could “get nasty” sometimes but when she was calm, she was loving. The day before her death, the couple had travelled to a car boot sale and Ms Satchwell had been upset by something, he said.

Tina Satchwell would take two-hour baths in water 'so hot you could boil potatoes in it', Mr Satchwell said in a garda interview after he was arrested for her murder. File picture

On the way back to Youghal, he said that she hit him once in the head, knocking his glasses off while he was driving.

But when they got home, she was calm again, he said, and sat in the sitting room watching music videos on TV while the couple chatted about what Ms Satchwell had bought that day and about ordering pizza that night.

Mr Satchwell sat in the accused’s box, face buried so deeply in his hands that no one could see his face, as a video of the interview was played to court.

Tina Satchwell, aged 45, vanished from her home on 3 Grattan St, Youghal, on March 20, 2017. Her husband Richard Satchwell, aged 58, reported her missing four days later. He has denied her murder at their home in March 2017 and is currently on trial in the Central Criminal Court, sitting in Dublin.