Richard Satchwell 'far from criminal mastermind', says defence barrister

State and defence offer starkly different views on motive, intent, and truth in Tina Satchwell murder trial conclusion

Murder accused Richard Satchwell was “far from a criminal mastermind” and had “left a trail of breadcrumbs that could rival any nursery tale after him,” senior counsel Brendan Grehan told a jury on Friday.

The defence barrister was giving the State’s closing argument at the Central Criminal Court in the trial of Mr Satchwell for the murder of his wife, Tina Satchwell, née Dingivan.

Mr Satchwell, aged 58, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mrs Satchwell, aged 45, on March 20, 2017, at their home at 3 Grattan St, Youghal.

He reported her missing on March 24, 2017. Her skeletal remains were found wrapped in plastic and buried beneath a concrete floor under the stairwell in their terraced home in Youghal on October 11, 2023.

“Richard Satchwell is guilty, there’s no doubt about it," Mr Grehan said.

"But what exactly is he guilty of?

“He is certainly guilty of causing his wife’s death, he says in a struggle where she was attacking him with a chisel.

“He is guilty of burying her under the stairs.” 

He is guilty of disreputable conduct, which included offering the chest freezer he had stored his wife’s body in to her cousin, to whom she was very close, he said.

He is guilty of lying to Mrs Satchwell’s family, doctors, gardaí, and to every journalist who would listen to him, Mr Grehan said.

“He lied to the people of Ireland,” Mr Grehan said.

“He lied to you and he lied to me.

“That does not make him a murderer.” 

To convict of murder, the jury must be satisfied, based on the evidence, that beyond reasonable doubt, he intended to cause his wife’s death or serious harm, he said.

And this intent could not be inferred from his lies, Mr Grehan said.

People lie for all kinds of reasons, including for “for killing the very thing they loved”. 

"It was indeed a web of lies — but what a tangled wicked web we weave when at first we practice to deceive. Once you start a lie it can be very difficult to stop — a domino effect," he said.

When someone lies to you, you feel aggrieved, Mr Grehan said.

But the jury must not allow either favour or hostility to inform their decision.

Instead, they must be cold, calculating, and clinical, he said, and examine the evidence.

It seems clear that Mr Satchwell loved, was besotted with, obsessed with, and worshipped his late wife, Mr Grehan said.

“He told his brother when he first saw her at 17 years of age that he was going to marry that girl. And he did.

“He spent his life devoted to her.” 

Tina Satchwell. File picture

Mr Grehan spoke of “rituals” Mr Satchwell claimed the couple had — how he would run her baths, rub baby oil into her body, and remove nail varnish from her fingers and toes.

He knew things most husbands would not know about their wives — not just the size of their shoes or clothes but size of their various underwear, he said.

It was “highly unusual” that the couple attended medical appointments at the GP together and “certainly smacks of some kind of controlling behaviour”.

No cause of death could be established because Ms Satchwell’s organs and much of her soft tissue had already decomposed.

But no evidence of fractures was found on her bones, including the hyoid bone which is associated with some 70% of manual strangulations, he said.

No damage was found either on the finger nails that were recovered.

“I accept that Richard Satchwell was the greatest contributor to the delay in this case so [pathologist Dr] Margot Bolster was unable to give a cause of death in this case,” he said.

But he also blamed gardaí for the delay in finding her body.

An initial search of the house in June, 2017, despite being extensive was not invasive, and did not uncover Mrs Satchwell’s remains.

But after a new garda, Sergeant Anne Marie Twomey, was appointed to the case, an invasive search was ordered which uncovered Mrs Satchwell’s remains in October, 2023.

However, Mr Grehan said that the investigation progressed “at a pedestrian rate”. 

“What a different case we might have had had matters progressed in a different way,” he said.

But prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small, said that Mr Satchwell’s account of his wife's disappearance and death “had more holes than a block of Swiss cheese”.

Richard Satchwell. File picture

And Mr Satchwell had been “shamelessly brazen to the very end”, she said. He repeatedly lied, saying that his wife had left him.

And he repeated these lies until her remains were found which was “ultimately self-serving”, Ms Small said.

Mr Satchwell displayed “conniving actions, full of guile”, and wove “a web of deceit” after burying his wife under a concrete floor in the sitting room of their Youghal home, she said.

His narrative “beggars belief”, she said.

“He’s an arch manipulator,” she said, who displayed cunning and could pivot his narrative at every juncture.

She said that the manner he buried his wife was “absolutely disrespectful”. 

He left her body on a couch, then put her in the freezer, which was not even turned on.

He then dug a 3ft hole, put her body on black plastic — the kind put on the ground at a car boot sale — and concreted over her remains, she said.

That he then offered the freezer he had stored his wife’s body into her “beloved cousin”, was “astounding.

“The objective of Richard Satchwell was always to put everyone off the scent,” Ms Small said.

“He was full of guile and cunning.

“Why? Because he murdered Tina.” 

The case of self-defence was “nonsense” she said.

On Monday, the jury will be charged by Justice Paul McDermott and must then retire to consider a verdict.