Richard Satchwell, who was found guilty last week of the murder of his wife Tina Satchwell (née Dingivan) has been sentenced to life in prison.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott sentenced Satchwell at the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday morning.
Satchwell (58) – who has 14 previous convictions – intends to appeal the verdict.
Ms Satchwell’s skeletal remains were found in a deep grave in an area under the stairs of the couple’s Co Cork home in October 2023, more than six years after her husband reported her missing.
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Satchwell, a lorry driver, had pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife (45) at Grattan Street, Youghal, between March 19th and 20th, 2017. He claimed Ms Satchwell had left him, taking their cash savings.
After her remains were uncovered during a forensic excavation at their home more than six years later, Satchwell claimed that his wife flew at him with a chisel on the morning of March 20th, 2017. He said a struggle followed and she went “limp” and died. He said he put her body on a couch, then in a chest freezer and, on March 26th, buried her under the stairs.
He was convicted of Ms Satchwell’s murder last Friday by unanimous verdict of the jury of seven women and five men, following more than nine hours of deliberation.
The victim’s sister Lorraine Howard told the court that Satchwell “put us as a family through the ultimate hell of not knowing what had happened to Tina for years. He manipulated us as the master manipulator he is into believing she would one day return. Having taken her life, he didn’t even have the decency to let us have her body and mourn her death. To bury her with the dignity she deserves. I will never be able to forgive Richard Satchwell for what he has done”.
She said he secretly buried his murdered wife under the stairs of their home where he could have “ultimate control” over her, adding that he had treated her sister’s remains “with such disrespect”.
“The appalling way my sister was buried, wrapped in plastic, buried beneath soil and concrete, puts shivers down my spine every time I think about it,” Ms Howard said.
She said Satchwell “showed Tina’s dog in death more respect” by getting the animal “cremated and making a shrine”.
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Ms Satchwell’s niece Sarah Howard said her aunt’s body had been put in a chest freezer which Satchwell had offered to gift to her.
“One of the things I don’t think I will ever overcome is to find out that Richard Satchwell had put Tina in a chest freezer and then a few days later he texted me to offer me the freezer. To hear this just horrified me to think I could have taken it into my family home and used it. What sort of person can do that”.
She asked “what kind of person would do that” and said she was horrified to think she could have taken this freezer into her home where it would have been used.
Ms Howard said she could not comprehend how someone who had claimed to love Tina could do something so cruel.
She said she had been best friends with her aunt who should have been beside her on her wedding day. Ms Howard said her aunt was not a violent woman but was gentle, caring and loyal to those she loved.
She said the ordeal of the trial was very difficult for her family and they were pained by how her aunt had been portrayed.
She asked the court in considering the crime to take into account the cruelty, deception and the false hope that Satchwell had created, that her aunt might one day turn up. She said the murder had left a permanent hole in their lives.
Lawyers for Satchwell had unsuccessfully tried to have the murder charge against him withdrawn and substituted with manslaughter in the fourth week of the trial.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott rejected arguments from Satchwell’s defence team – made at the end of the evidence and in the absence of the jury – that there was no evidence on which the jury could safely find the accused had the necessary legal intention for murder, to kill or cause serious injury to his wife. That was “a huge lacuna” in the prosecution case, defence counsel Brendan Grehan argued.
Supt Ann Marie Twomey, who took over the investigation into the case in August 2021, said the Garda team was “thankful that this investigation has provided answers and a sense of justice” for Tina’s family and the wider community.
“While no resolution can erase the pain of loss, we sincerely hope that the conclusion of this case brings some measure of comfort to Tina’s family,” she said. “We extend our deepest gratitude to the witnesses in this case and all of those who assisted us throughout the investigation. Your assistance formed an essential part of the journey. We would like to acknowledge the support of the wider community, especially those in Fermoy and Youghal. Finally, we the investigation team are happy that justice has been served for Tina.”
