Richard Satchwell told gardaí he buried his wife's body under the stairs of their home as he wanted to keep her with him, court hears

Richard Satchwell told gardaí that he buried his wife's body under the stairs of their Cork home as he wanted to keep her with him and didn't want to leave her alone.

"I wanted her to know the hand that killed her was also the hand that loved her," the murder accused told interviewing detectives.

Following the discovery of her remains at the couple's home in Youghal, over six years after Tina Satchwell was reported missing, the British truck driver told gardaí that "the worst thing of all" was once the lies started, he couldn't stop and he had a "sense of relief" that the truth was out.

The Leicester native told detectives that he used to talk to the area in which he had buried Tina and the hardest thing was "not getting anything back".

A consultant forensic anthropologist also told the Central Criminal trial that there were no injuries to any of Ms Satchwell's bones, including her hyoid bone.

INTERVIEW FOLLOWING RE-ARREST 

Detective Garda David Kelleher told Gerardine Small SC, prosecuting, that at the outset of his first interview with gardaí following his re-arrest on October 12 2023, Mr Satchwell said that he and Tina had been at a car boot sale on March 19, 2017 when she hit him a slap.

"Without a word I got a slap, knocked glasses ...someone insulted her or said something nasty I don't know and that triggered the slap in the car".

The accused said that when he walked into the sitting room of his home the following morning, Tina was at the bottom of the stairs with a chisel in her hand taking down plasterboard.

He added: "This day she flew at me - I went back, fell against the floor. The belt of the bathrobe was where I held her up with the belt like this until she got heavier. Before I know it, it had all stopped, it just stopped.

"I put my arms around her, she fell down on top of me. I didn't know what to do. I held her for a good 20 minutes or half an hour. The two dogs just there sitting looking. They came over, started licking her, I just laid there. Sometime later I don't know I got up and just like to keep things normal".

Mr Satchwell told gardaí he was holding his wife and kissing her on the head. "There was no taking back I just don't know. Shame, panic, I don't know".

The accused said he later went to the couple's "favourite spot" in Youghal and sat there thinking what to do next and what his "next move would be".

He said his wife wasn't a bad woman, "just angry at times". He said when she was calm, "she was loving".

The accused went on to tell gardaí: "Once I'd told it I couldn't go back on it. Buried her under the stairs. Part of the stairs wasn't concreted for some reason, muck and stone. I went and got roses and called her my Irish rose but none - Mother's Day so I got her tulips," he continued.

"I ain't got no excuses; once it's done I couldn't take it back," he added.

Mr Satchwell later told gardaí he might have "startled" his wife, who was wearing a lilac coloured nightgown, when he asked her what she was doing as she scraped away plasterboard with the chisel.

He said Tina just "flew" at him with "so much force" that he fell backwards onto the floor with her on top of him. "She flew straight at me, she flew for me, she jumped at me and just went for me". He said he had his arms up in the air and was holding his wife up.

"I don't know why the robe belt was loose, I put me hands up, next thing I know she goes limp...the only thing I can tell you was she was angry. It happened so fast like," he said.

He said Tina was in a "blind rage" and her face was "distorted". He told gardaí that his wife had "lurched" and "pounced" at him as he stood eight foot away from her.

"It happened in a flash and within seconds it was over. It happened so fast I can't put it into detail," he continued.

Mr Satchwell called it the worst day of his life.

Asked by gardaí whether had he caused Tina to die, the accused said he imagined it was the way she was forcing her weight down on top of him and the belt being where it was, "not being able to breathe".

"I can't turn around and say, oh her neck was broke or strangulate, I don't know, it just happened so fast". He said this was the only time he ever "truly defended" himself against Tina.

"All the weight come down, the throat on the belt as I was holding up by the belt".

He said he wasn't a "monster" and the worst thing of all was once the lies started, he couldn't stop. He said he never wished to harm Tina and that's why he put up with "the stuff" he did.

Mr Satchwell told gardaí there was "a sense of relief" that the truth was out but he hated himself. 

"You've no idea how many times I nearly walked off the fish pier," he said, adding that he had stayed for the love of their two dogs, which he said were like children to him.

Asked why he hadn't called anyone, the accused said it was panic and shame. "I was actually holding the same 17-year-old girl that I met nearly 30 years before. I know your thinking in your head you crazy bastard".

Mr Satchwell said he initially laid Tina on the couch and the next few days went by "in a blur".

He said he put Tina inside a large chest freezer in the shed two days later on March 22 or 23, away from the dogs as they kept coming over to her. "I just lifted her into it and she fell in".

"I was robotic, working on automatic. My brain wasn't working. She was heavy, so heavy, it was like trying to lift a ten tonne bag of coal".

He said he dug out underneath the stairs with a spade and laid his wife on the black plastic on the kitchen floor. "I wanted her to know the hand that killed her was also the hand that loved her".

He said he had buried her on the following Sunday afternoon, March 26. "I know that this is sick, I wanted to keep her with me, I didn't want to leave her alone... it's been killing me since I did it".

He said it could have been 20 minutes or 20 hours, he didn't know how long it took to dig the hole. 

"It was light when I started and dark when I finished".

He said he dug a hole and carried her into it. He described working in the tight space under the stairs and said his knuckles were bleeding.

He cried as he told gardaí: "I actually carried her into the hole, I didn't drop her into the hole, I wasn't disrespectful. I can remember folding the plastic around her, putting the flowers in". He said he had bought a couple of bunches of Tulips from Tesco and put her wedding ring in the pocket of her bathrobe.

Asked by gardaí where he had got the black plastic she was wrapped in, Mr Satchwell said they had a roll of it which they used to cover the ground at the car boot sales to lay "stuff" on.

"I didn't want to dirty her so I wrapped her in black plastic, before I covered her I threw flowers in, I wanted to get her roses but I couldn't".

"I was actually in the hole with her. And if I could have done I would have covered the two of us".

He added: "I can remember starting to chuck a bit of the black sandy stuff down and the next thing I remember was covering it with cement". He said the cement he used was already in the house and he had filled the hole with it.

The accused told gardaí that they would probably never do anything as evil as what he had done and said he knew he was a bad person.

The accused said nothing could make it right, adding: "The amount of times I sat and talked to that piece of ground you wouldn't believe it".

He said he use to open the door under the stairs and talk to Tina and sometimes it could just be "hello love". He said the hardest thing was "not getting anything back".

"I can't put it into words what happened. I should have just let her stab me, let it be the end of me," he said.

CONSULTANT FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST 

Earlier, a consultant forensic anthropologist told the trial that there were no injuries to any of Ms Satchwell's bones, including her hyoid bone, at the time of death and no evidence she had ever suffered a fracture.

Expert witness Ms Laureen Buckley said she had identified the remains of an adult female who was probably over 45 years of age and because the body was lying face down in a gravesite, it was "more preserved on the front".

Under cross-examination, the witness told Brendan Grehan SC, defending, that the hyoid bone is "sometimes but not always" found damaged in strangulation cases.

In her evidence, Ms Buckley said when she went to the scene at Grattan Street in Youghal on October 12, 2023 Ms Satchwell's body had not been fully excavated and she had offered assistance to the forensic archaeologists.

The witness said the body, which was lying face down, was wrapped in plastic and had a slab over the head area. She said there was enough preservation of the soft tissue to identify the body as female.

Ms Buckley said there was no evidence of any fracture to any of the bones including the skull at the time of death and the hyoid bone was intact.

In cross-examination, the witness confirmed to Mr Grehan there was no evidence Ms Satchwell had ever suffered a fracture.

The trial continues tomorrow Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of five men and seven women.

The Central Criminal Court has heard that on March 24, 2017, Mr Satchwell told gardaí that his wife Tina had left their home four days earlier but that he had no concerns over her welfare, feeling she had left due to a deterioration in their relationship.

The accused formally reported Ms Satchwell missing the following May but her body was not discovered for over six years, when gardaí in October 2023 conducting "an invasive search" of the Satchwell's home found her decomposed remains in a grave that had been dug underneath the stairs.

The trial has heard gardaí went with a search warrant to the accused's home on Grattan Street in Youghal on October 10 2023, where they arrested hime for the murder of Tina Satchwell on or about March 19, 2017 and brought him to Cobh Garda Station. An invasive search of Grattan Street was conducted simultaneously, with gardaí bringing in building equipment to excavate the couple's home.

Mr Satchwell (58), with an address at Grattan Street, Youghal, Co Cork has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 45-year-old wife Tina Satchwell - nee Dingivan - at that address between March 19 and March 20, 2017, both dates inclusive.