Richard Satchwell to appeal conviction for wife's murder next March

Richard Satchwell, who is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife and secretly burying her under the stairs of their East Cork home, will attempt to overturn his conviction next March.

Satchwell, aged 60, had pleaded not guilty to murdering 45-year-old Tina Satchwell — née Dingivan — at their home address at Grattan Street, Youghal, between March 19 and March 20, 2017, both dates inclusive.

Satchwell was convicted of Tina’s murder by the unanimous verdict of a Central Criminal Court jury. He was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment by Mr Justice Paul McDermott in June 2025.

At his sentencing hearing, Tina’s sister, Lorraine Howard, described Satchwell as a “master manipulator” who secretly buried his murdered wife under the stairs of their home where he could have “ultimate control” over her.

She said Satchwell “showed Tina’s dog in death more respect” by getting the animal “cremated and making a shrine”.

Tina was formally reported missing by Satchwell in May 2017, but her body was not discovered until October 2023. Her cause of death could not be determined due to the skeletonised nature of her remains when they were eventually uncovered.

Satchwell, a six-foot two truck driver, had claimed that his five-foot four wife Tina, who weighed eight stone, had launched an attack on him with a chisel and died during a struggle in which he either lacked the intent to kill her or was acting in self-defence.

“Absolutely farcical”

The jury, however, unanimously rejected his defence and agreed with the prosecution case that Satchwell’s narrative of how his wife died after he held her off by the belt of her bathrobe — the only account of her death they were given — was “absolutely farcical” and had “more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese”.

The jury had watched video clips of a tearful Richard Satchwell making televised appeals for Tina to come home, months after he murdered her and buried her in a grave dug almost one metre deep beneath their Cork home.

At the time Satchwell was sentenced, his barrister, Brendan Grehan SC, said his client had indicated that he intended to appeal, insisted that he never intended to kill Tina and that “despite anything said in the trial, Tina was a lovely person”.

Satchwell’s appeal was listed for directions before Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy as she managed a list of cases at the Court of Appeal on Friday.

When the matter was called on, a junior barrister for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said the appeal is likely to take half a day.

Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy fixed March 18, 2027, as the date for Satchwell’s appeal to be heard. The judge also granted legal aid for a solicitor and three barristers.