Trial of Richard Satchwell for the murder of his wife Tina in Cork to begin on Monday

Trial is currently scheduled to run for four weeks at Dublin Central Criminal Court

Richard Satchwell has not yet entered a plea. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Richard Satchwell is due to stand trial for the murder of his wife, Tina Satchwell on Monday.

Human remains were found buried beneath concrete in the couple’s home in Youghal, Co Cork, in October 2023 during a search for the missing woman.

Ms Satchwell, 45, had been missing since 2017.

Her remains were found wrapped in plastic and buried beneath a concrete floor under a stairwell in the home she had shared with her husband on Grattan St in Youghal on October 11, 2023.

Her belly button piercing was found on the remains but dental records were used by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster at the autopsy to confirm the body was Ms Satchwell’s.

A long-standing missing persons investigation had been upgraded to a murder investigation in the weeks before her body was discovered.

Mr Satchwell, 57, was charged with his wife’s murder on March 20, 2017, at their home on Grattan St, Youghal.

He has not yet entered a plea in the case.

A jury is due to be empaneled on Monday. 

Mr Satchwell had been on remand in Limerick Prison since he was charged with Ms Satchwell’s murder in October 2023. But he was to be moved to a Dublin prison for the duration of the trial.

The trial is currently scheduled to run for four weeks in the Criminal Courts of Justice on Parkgate Street in Dublin.

An application by Mr Satchwell to have his case moved from the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork to Dublin had been granted.

Ms Satchwell was 45 when she disappeared in March, 2017.

The last reported public sighting of Ms Satchwell was at a car boot sale in Carrigtwohill on March 19.

She was believed to have vanished on March 20, 2017.

Tina Satchwell's remains were found wrapped in plastic and buried beneath a concrete floor under a stairwell in the home she had shared with her husband on Grattan St in Youghal on October 11, 2023

Mr Satchwell reported his wife missing to gardaí on March 24, 2017.

A Garda investigation ensued, which included some 400 lines of inquiry, more than 100 hours of CCTV footage, and 170 statements.

But no trace of Ms Satchwell was found until some six and a half years later during a search and excavation at her home.

Her family never gave up on finding Ms Satchwell, and continued to push for information on her whereabouts throughout the years she was missing.

Ms Satchwell was described by family and friends as kind, thoughtful, vibrant and bubbly.

She was an animal-lover and doted on her two dogs Ruby and Heidi. She was rarely seen without them. 

The couple also had a pet parrot called Pearl in their home.

She loved fashion, had a large wardrobe of clothes and was a regular at local car boot sales.

Ms Satchwell grew up in St Bernard's Place in Fermoy, Co Cork.

Born Tina Dingivan on November 30, 1972, she was raised by her grandparents, the late Florence and Patrick Dingivan.

She grew up alongside her four aunts and three uncles, who she initially believed were her sisters and brothers.

It later transpired one of these ‘sisters/aunts’, Mary, was actually her mother.

She moved to Leicester in England when she was 16, and lived with her aunt Teresa and her grandmother Florence.

It was in England in the months after her arrival that she met her husband, lorry driver Richard Satchwell, whose family lived a few doors down from Ms Satchwell’s new UK home.

Two years after they met, when Tina was just turning 20, the couple married in 1991.

Ms Satchwell was close to her family and the couple moved back to Fermoy where Mr Satchwell worked as a lorry driver.

The couple then relocated to a three-storey terraced house on Grattan St in Youghal in 2016 to be close to the sea, just 18 months before Ms Satchwell vanished.

They would often be seen walking their dogs on the local beaches prior to her disappearance. 

Hundreds of people gathered for vigils in Cork to remember Ms Satchwell after her remains were found.

And family, friends and neighbours lined the streets of St Bernards Place, Fermoy, as her funeral cortege passed on October 25, 2023, to say their final farewells to Ms Satchwell.

Her uncle, Frankie Dingivan, who grew up like a brother to Tina, stood solemnly outside the Fermoy home they shared as children.

Tina’s first cousin, Nan Power, who grew up down the road in Fermoy and later lived in the UK at the same time as Tina, said her cousin was universally loved.

“She was a beautiful girl. She’d help you when you were sick and she always had a smile on her face.

“She was so kind and gentle.”

Joanie McCarthy, who grew up on the same street as Ms Satchwell, said on the day of her funeral the whole town was in mourning .

“There’s a gloom, a deadness in the area. The whole place is in shock.

“We were neighbours in two places — here in St Bernard's Place and later in Mac Gearilt Place. She was so bubbly, she always seemed happy. She loved her dogs, she lived for them.

“She was so positive. She was the nicest person you could meet on the planet. No one ever had a bad word to say about her."