Murder accused says wife hit him and ‘could lose her temper easily’

A man accused of murdering his wife told Irish police he had been injured by her multiple times throughout their marriage, a court has heard.

The jury in the trial of Richard Satchwell, who is accused of murdering Tina Satchwell at the home they shared in Co Cork between March 19 and 20 2017, was told that he outlined the injuries during an “enhanced cognitive interview” more than four years later.

The 58-year-old, from Grattan Street in Youghal, denies murder.

Ms Satchwell’s remains were found in a shallow grave beneath a concrete floor under a set of stairs in their home in October 2023.

Satchwell, who is originally from Leicester in England, initially told police he had finished working on the stairs before she went missing.

He formally reported his wife missing on May 11 2017, weeks after the date he told police she had left their home.

On Tuesday, the jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin heard from a transcript of an interview with gardai on June 20 2021.

The court heard that Satchwell told gardai that his wife had threatened to leave hundreds of times over a period of 15 years, most recently within six months of her disappearance.

He said she told him she would leave to get her “own back” for him leaving to spend a year in England in 2002.

However, he said he “didn’t just up and disappear” to England and that he sent her money.

The interview was conducted by Detective Sergeant David Noonan, who held the rank of detective garda at the time.

Det Sgt Noonan told the court the “witness-led” interview process was the “gold standard” of taking a witness or victim statement.

The full transcript, which was read out over several hours by prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small, ran to more than 120 pages.

During his conversation with Det Sgt Noonan, Satchwell outlined details of his relationship with his wife as well as his movements on the last days he said he saw her.

He told the investigator that Ms Satchwell could be “nasty”, “mean” and “angry”.

He said “she could lose her temper easily” and “could hit you”.

He said he had “a lot of injuries over the years” and had to hide some of them from other people.

Satchwell told the detective he had never hit her back and he had been brought up to respect women.

He said he went to see a doctor in 1994 after his face was “destroyed by scratches”.

He added that in 1995 he had “taken a box” of sleeping tablets as “Tina was in one of her bad spells and I couldn’t take it any more”.

Satchwell told the detective that others had mentioned black eyes and swollen limbs.

He also said he had had bite marks, cuts to his forehead and head, a “scrawled back” and “scrawled belly”.

He said this was “not as frequent as it sounds” as it was spread over 28 years.

He said that if Ms Satchwell became violent, 10 minutes later it was like it had never happened and she would be apologising.

Asked about their relationship, Satchwell said everything “tended to alter” in the year before her disappearance, including her mobile phone going missing, and things she had previously not wanted in his name being put in his name.

He also told the detective he had “been through a lot” and the “last four years have not been easy”.

He later added: “If she turned up tomorrow, short of being in a coma for four years, I don’t see much of a future.”

Satchwell told Det Sgt Noonan he did not know where his wife was.

He said he “never kept tabs on her” and “didn’t keep a dog lead on her”.

He outlined a belief that she would go knocking at someone’s door, “probably with another fella, I don’t know”, or that she would send him a registered letter demanding the sale of the house.

Satchwell told the detective he had finished working on the stairs in their house before she went missing, adding that they were virtually still the same as when she had disappeared.

He later told police that two days after she died, he had put Ms Satchwell’s body into a chest freezer in the shed before moving her to a shallow grave beneath the stairs.

He said she died after he protected himself with a belt which was around her neck after “she flew” at him with a chisel.

In the 2021 interview with Det Sgt Noonan, Satchwell described the day he noticed his wife was missing – after returning from a trip to Dungarvan on Monday morning.

Satchwell said he noticed two suitcases were missing and a box of cash with the “best part of 26,000 grand” was empty.

He said the missing money did not bother him as Ms Satchwell did not trust him with the money and he would have spent it on her.

He added that he “never said no to the woman” and would “dote on her”.

He said he did not sleep that evening and was crying on a chair while one of their dogs licked his tears.

Satchwell said he was convinced she was at a relative’s house.

He also said his doctor had told him during an appointment that it seemed planned and that she had “gone off” with somebody.

He went to gardai after the doctor’s appointment.

He told Det Sgt Noonan he “100%” believed Ms Satchwell had gone to Fermoy, where she had relatives, before going anywhere else.

He said he did not believe rumours that she had gone away with someone else.

He also told the detective about their last night together with their usual nightly ritual of Ms Satchwell taking a bath, before he applied baby oil or lotion on to her body before giving her a foot rub.

He said she had “spent a lot of time crying before she went” but on what he said was their last night together, “there was no tears” and it was “one of her better days”.

He said he attributed the crying to either depression or because she had plans to leave her life behind.

He said the crying came after a relative of hers committed suicide.

The transcript also contained exchanges of Satchwell referring to his wife’s belief that she may have been abused as a child.

When he was invited back to sign the transcript on January 23 2022, he added that he believed Ms Satchwell was first planning to leave four years before she did.

He said he had found letters from Littlewoods which said he was being added as a third party to her account which he believed was to “get her own back” for his time in England.

He added: “I personally think she is still out there somewhere.”

The trial continues.