Truck driver told police wife ‘flew’ at him with chisel, murder trial told

A British truck driver accused of murdering his wife told police that after she “flew” at him with a chisel, he used the belt of her dressing robe to keep her off him, before she went limp and died, a court in Dublin has heard.

Richard Satchwell, 58, from Grattan Street in Youghal, Co Cork, denies murdering his wife, Tina Satchwell, at the home they shared in March 2017.

Her remains were found buried under a concrete floor under the stairs in their family home, six years after she disappeared.

Mr Satchwell told police investigating her death that two days after she died, he put her body into a chest freezer in the shed before moving her to a shallow grave in their home.

Opening the trial, prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small told the jury that on October 11 2023, decomposed remains were found wrapped in black sheeting in a grave dug underneath the stairs in the living room.

Her body was so decomposed that a pathologist who examined her remains could not give the cause of death.

Outlining the prosecution’s case, Ms Small told the jury that the couple married in the UK when Ms Satchwell was a 20-year-old and later moved to Ireland and bought a house in Fermoy, Co Cork.

The couple lived there for some time before selling the property and buying a house in Youghal in 2016.

Ms Small described Ms Satchwell as a “very glamorous” lady who had a love for fashion and clothes.

The court heard that she loved her two dogs, particularly her chihuahua, Ruby, and considered them her children.

She was described as a petite lady, about 5ft 4in, who weighed about eight stone (50 kilograms).

The jury was told they will hear evidence that on March 24 2017, Mr Satchwell went to the garda station in Fermoy, four days after he claimed his wife left their family home.

He told police he had no concerns for her welfare and had no concerns she would self-harm.

Mr Satchwell said he believed she had left their family home because their relationship had deteriorated.

He believed she was staying at a hotel and claimed she had taken 25,000 euro in cash from their savings, which they kept in the attic.

He told police that on the morning she allegedly left the home, Ms Satchwell had asked him to go to Aldi in Dungarvan to buy a number of items, including parrot food, and that he had left the house at 10am and returned in the early afternoon.

When he returned to the house, Ms Satchwell was not there but noticed her keys on the floor and her phone sitting on the counter.

He said the dogs were in the house, which he said was “unusual”. He also said he later noticed two suitcases missing from the house as well as the cash.

He told police he believed she left because their relationship had deteriorated and that she was liable to violent outbursts directed at him.

The court was told that Mr Satchwell made appeals for her whereabouts through the media, and that he made a number of appearances on TV and radio, will which feature during the trial.

Police obtained a search warrant for his house on June 7 2017 and carried out a search, which Ms Small said was not invasive.

A number of items were seized, including electronic devices, which were examined and analysed.

The jury were also told how they will heard about extensive searches carried out by the gardai, including searches of forests, the coastline, and CCTV footage was also analysed.

Ms Small told the court that “significant inconsistencies” began to emerge between police investigation and what Mr Satchwell had told them.

They were told that a forensic accountant concluded that the Satchwells did not have the capacity to save about 26,000 euro or anywhere near that amount.

CCTV from Youghal post office on March 20 showed Mr Satchwell in the premises shortly after 11am, to collect his dole, at a time he claimed he was in Dungarvan.

Location data collected from his phone disclosed that after coming back from the post office, he arrived home at about 11.20am, and he stayed in the house until 12.50pm.

She said this did not fit with his narrative that he had been in Dungarvan while Ms Satchwell was taking money and two suitcases.

The court was also told that Mr Satchwell had placed an ad for a chest freezer on Done Deal, which he was selling for free on March 31 2017.

He had previously offered this chest freezer to Ms Satchwell’s cousin.

The court also heard that he had sent an email on the morning of March 20, at about 10.42am, to an international monkey organisation that Mr and Ms Satchwell had been trying to buy two monkeys from.

He said he had been having difficulties in getting the monkeys, and that they had put a lot of work into getting the monkeys.

The court was told that Ms Satchwell was last seen at a car boot sale with Mr Satchwell on Sunday March 19. The couple were often seen at car boot sales.

The court heard that after Ms Satchwell disappeared, Mr Satchwell told attendees at a car boot sale that Ms Satchwell was not there as she had contracted a serious respiratory illness and had lost weight, and that she was with her sister in the UK.

The court also heard how he had sold her clothes and shoes very shortly after she allegedly disappeared.

On October 10 2023, police initiated an operation and arrested Mr Satchwell and carried out an “invasive and extensive” search of their home.

During police interview, he told gardai the same narrative he had maintained since she disappeared.

He was released the following morning while the search was continuing.

The search team included forensic archaeologists specialists who have experience in relation to historic crime scenes.

On the evening of October 11, the team found decomposed human remains, which had been wrapped in black plastic sheeting in a three foot grave, which was dug under the stairs in the sitting room. The grave had been cemented over.

The decomposed body was identified as Ms Satchwell’s, however it was so badly decomposed that state pathologist Dr Margot Bolster was unable to confirm the cause of death.

Mr Satchwell was re-arrested and told gardai that he had been out in the shed at about 9am on the morning of March 20 to do some plumbing.

He returned to the house to find Ms Satchwell at the bottom of the stairs in her dressing robe with a chisel, scraping plaster board.

He asked her what she was doing and he claimed “she flew” at him with the chisel and after losing his footing he fell back onto the ground.

He claimed she was on top of him trying to stab him in the head with the chisel.

He said all he could do to protect himself was take a belt which was around her neck and effectively take Ms Satchwell’s weight off him.

He said that she fell limp seconds later and she was dead.

On the Wednesday, he moved her into the freezer in the shed and on the following Sunday he took her out of the freezer and dug a grave and cemented over it.

Garda James Butler, of Youghal Garda Station, told the court that he took a statement from Mr Satchwell on May 11 2017.

Mr Satchwell told police he believed his wife had “some undiagnosed psychiatric condition” and was “surely getting worse” over the last few years.

He claimed she had “violent outbursts” and told him that she wasted her life with him. She did not take medication and claimed she would “rather die” than take anti-depressants.

Mr Satchwell told police that his wife’s family had a history of bipolar and claimed she had a “short fuse” and would lose her temper, and would become a lot more violent.

He said that years would go by and not a cross word would be spoken.

She never attempted suicide and did not think she would self-harm, adding that she would “lash out at others rather than herself”.

He told police that when she went missing, he thought she went to stay with family in Fermoy and was giving her a few days “to cool off”.

He travelled to Fermoy on Friday March 24 for a medical appointment and called to see her brother and sister as he was convinced she would be there.

He said he “felt the ground open up” when he learned they had not seen her.

He told police that she was not a danger to herself as she was “too vain” and that “Tina is in love with herself”.

She would tell him she hated living in Youghal then minutes later would be in his arms hugging him.

The Tuesday before she disappeared, the couple were travelling in the car when “she got angry out of nowhere”, and claimed she said she wasted 28 years on him.

He said she wore the trousers and that he was a “bit of a walk over”.

The court was told that after her brother’s death, her mood swings got worse, that she always had a short fuse.

He claimed that in the last few years she “might slap me once or twice a week”, adding that he would experience real violence three or four times a year.

He had a scar from a lamp after she hit him, and would also hit him with anything that came to hand, adding that he would “never hit her”

“I took abuse because of what she came from in life. She is not a bad person and I don’t want to paint her like that,” he said in the statement.

“I would never lay a finger on Tina. I am more of a threat to myself than her. I resent that idea that I would or harm her in any way.

“I totally loved Tina and give my life for her. I want her back and built my life for her.

“My mother hated the Irish. She is my life and I considered suicide at the thought of her leaving. I am destroyed by this. I just want Tina back.”

In a separate statement made to Garda Aidan Dardis on May 15, he said he gave up his family for his wife, adding that “she is my whole world”.

The trial continues.