'Massive question mark' over Richard Satchwell's account of his wife's death, court hears

Murder-accused had repeatedly failed to give gardaí detail about his wife’s death, saying it 'happened in a flash' and he could not remember

Richard Satchwell denies the murder of his wife Tina at their home in Youghal in March 2017.

Murder-accused Richard Satchwell said he cut a piece of the dressing gown robe he had held to his wife’s throat before she died and pulled her body into him as they lay on the ground of their home.

“I wanted her arms around me,” he said.

But one of her arms was trapped under the long dressing gown belt he said he had held to her throat before she died.

He said he took a nail scissors, which happened to be lying on the floor in a compact manicure set that his wife had used the night before.

“I bent over — stretched — I was an emotional wreck. I wasn’t in a good state of mind. My face was wet [with tears].

“It was someone I had dedicated my life to.” 

He repeatedly failed to give gardaí detail about his wife’s death, saying it “happened in a flash” and he could not remember.

She was on top of him trying to stab him with a chisel as he lay on the ground and he grabbed her dressing gown belt and held it to her neck to try to keep her off him, he said.

His arms then “went numb” and she suddenly fell into his arms dead.

He said her body was cold within 20-30 minutes, as he remembered it.

But gardaí said there was “a massive question mark” over what he was saying.

“What you have described doesn’t make sense,” Detective Sergeant David Noonan said in a video of an interview with Mr Satchwell in Cobh Garda Station after he was arrested for his wife’s murder in October 2023.

“No one could die just like that.” 

Det Sgt Noonan said for the last six years Mr Satchwell had not been telling the truth. He had reported Mrs Satchwell, nee Dingivan, missing back in March 2017.

“You’re able to recount specific details from the following days,” Det Sgt Noonan said.

But he was “excluding the most significant thing”, saying he was unable to give details of his wife’s death.

“And there’s no logical or reasonable reason you would do that other than that there’s something else to hide."

When asked what he thought caused his wife’s death, Mr Satchwell mentioned it could have been blocked airways.

At another point, he said that she may have broken her neck.

“I won’t make up a story. I could try to explain but it wouldn’t be accurate or true, “ Mr Satchwell said during questioning.

“I was so sick, sick at what I had done.

“I’m sick of living behind a mask," he said.

“I’m going to prison. There’ll be no jury, I'm going to plead guilty.” 

Mr Satchwell insisted he did not know the details of how his wife's death exactly unfolded.

"It seems to me that you are trying to push me into saying something just to please you," he said to gardaí in the interview.

“It was a blur. Everything was happening like in a film.

“I wasn’t thinking. My body was shaking — not out of anger out of sorrow.” 

He said he wanted to make his wife “comfortable” and lifted her carefully into the grave.

Burying Tina was “the final goodbye”, he said.

“I put her in the grave,” he said.

“It’s a lot harder when you’re the reason that the person’s not lying there," he said.

“I wanted her with me. I knew she was dead. But I would talk to her.” 

Mr Satchwell said he could only describe his deceased wife Tina Satchwell as “physically perfect”.

He gave very detailed measurements of his wife’s body.

He said she was “a bit taller” as an adult than when he first met her when she was 17.

She was about 5ft4in or 5ft5in.

“Slim, size 10 — waist 29 — 31 leg depending on the make of the trouser.” 

Her feet were size four to five and she always hovered between eight and eight-and-a-half stone, he said.

She had a Tweedie Pie tattoo on her chest and anther tattoo on her ankle.

She would buy dressing gown robes one size too big and buy the dressing gown belt another size up again — so she “could have it as loose as she wanted,” he said.

But he said he was not sure whether or how her dressing gown belt was tied on the morning of her death.

Mr Satchwell, 58, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife at their home on 3 Grattan St, Youghal in March 2017.

The trial continues.