Members of jury in Satchwell trial are sent home for the night

A jury will return to the Central Criminal Court tomorrow to consider its verdict for a second day in the trial of Richard Satchwell, who denies murdering his wife before hiding her remains beneath their Cork home.

The jury of five men and seven women began considering their verdict at 3.05pm this afternoon and have spent a total of 46 minutes deliberating in their jury room in the Criminal Courts of Justice building.

At 3.50pm today, presiding judge Mr Justice Paul McDermott told the jurors that he would send them home for the evening and asked them to come back to the Central Criminal Court at 10.30am in the morning to resume their deliberations.

Before sending the jury of five men and seven women out to begin their deliberations at 3.05pm today, presiding judge Mr Justice Paul McDermott asked them to consider all the evidence in the case. He said if he had omitted any piece of evidence, they should "go on what's important" to them.

The judge had told the panel that there are three verdicts they can return in relation to the murder charge against Mr Satchwell, namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty. He asked them to be unanimous in their verdict.

Mr Justice McDermott told the jurors that there were two routes to the verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter - on the basis that they were satisfied that there had been an unlawful killing but that Mr Satchwell did not have an intention to kill Tina or cause her serious injury, and also on the basis of partial self defence.

The judge began charging the jury around midday on Monday in the Central Criminal Court trial of Mr Satchwell (58), who has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 45-year-old wife Tina Satchwell - nee Dingivan - at their home address at Grattan Street, Youghal, Co Cork between March 19 and March 20, 2017, both dates inclusive.

Mr Justice McDermott concluded his charge this afternoon to the 12 jurors, having told them on Monday that they could consider the issue of self-defence.

The judge said the onus lay on the prosecution to prove that Mr Satchwell was not acting in self defence. He said a scenario had been presented to the jury that the accused was attacked by Ms Satchwell and had sought to defend himself in the manner described in his interviews with gardaí.

He said if the jury decided the force used by Mr Satchwell was reasonable in the circumstances, as he honestly believed them to be, then they must acquit him of murder and manslaughter and return a verdict of not guilty.

He said if Mr Satchwell honestly believed he used no more force than was reasonably necessary but the degree of force used was not what a reasonable person would have used, then he was not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.

He said if self defence didn't apply, then they could find the accused guilty of murder provided they were satisfied he intended to kill or cause serious injury.

The trial 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 home, found her decomposed remains in a grave that had been dug almost one metre deep underneath the stairs.

When re-arrested on suspicion of Tina's murder after her body was removed from their Cork home, Mr Satchwell told gardaí that his wife "flew" at him with a chisel, that he fell backwards against the floor and described her death after he said he held her off by the belt of her bathrobe at her neck.

The Assistant State Pathologist has told the trial that Tina's cause of death cannot be determined due to the skeletal nature of her remains.

Last Friday in her closing speech, Gerardine Small SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the jury that Mr Satchwell's narrative of how his wife died after he held her off by the belt of her bathrobe was "absolutely farcical" and had "more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese".

Ms Small submitted that the British truck driver had woven "a web of deceit" and continued his "fabricated narrative" over the years. Counsel said Mr Satchwell's objective from the very outset was "always to put everyone off the scent" and that this was done because he had murdered Tina.

In his closing address, defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC told the jurors that there was no doubt Mr Satchwell was guilty, but asked the jurors what exactly he was guilty of. He argued that although the accused had lied "to the people of Ireland", the lies do not make him a murderer or relieve the prosecution of the burden of proving the ingredients of murder.