Gardaí told Richard Satchwell that his description of his wife Tina Satchwell’s death after he held her off by the belt of her bathrobe “didn’t make sense” and was “most likely a physical impossibility”, a Central Criminal Court jury has heard.
The murder accused also said he wasn’t trying to “bulls**t” detectives. “I’m going to prison, there will be no jury because I’m going to plead guilty,” Mr Satchwell told gardaí in interviews after they uncovered Ms Satchwell’s body in a grave beneath the stairway of her home.
In his first interview with gardaí following his rearrest on October 12th, 2023, Mr Satchwell said that his wife “flew” at him with a chisel, that he had fallen backwards and described holding the belt of her bathrobe at her neck “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,” said Mr Satchwell.
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During a second interview on the same day, gardaí put it to the accused that he hadn’t described any attempts to revive Ms Satchwell. “I lay there numb and I wasn’t thinking. My brain numb and body numb. Her body was stone cold. I can’t turn around and say she died of this, I don’t know what happened”.
Asked by gardaí whether the belt on his wife’s bathrobe was tied, Mr Satchwell said he didn’t think so but he couldn’t say for certain. “It happened in such a flash, it wasn’t something my brain had time to comprehend.”
Officers put it to the accused that this was not something that happens in a flash, to which Mr Satchwell said at that moment his arms had gone “dead and numb”.
“It seemed like forever, but also not forever, that it was happening. I was afraid, I was full of fear, and I was fending her off,” he replied.
Mr Satchwell said he had lifted the middle of his wife’s body into the hole he dug and laid her down as he wasn’t going to drop her in.
The accused said he knew it sounded ridiculous but he wanted to make his wife comfortable.
He described burying Ms Satchwell as “the final goodbye, like at a funeral, a genuine funeral, you cry”.
Gardaí put it to Mr Satchwell that he was excluding the most significant thing about how she died and there was no logical reason why he would do that, other than if there was something to hide. “I’ve put my hands up. I am the reason she is no longer with us . . . I can’t recall every detail,” he said.
Officers put it to the accused that, from what he had described of what happened to his wife, they could not see how she had died.
The detective said the incident could not have happened the way the accused had described it. “It’s most likely a physical impossibility that could have caused Tina’s death,” said Sgt Noonan.
Gardaí asked him whether he thought the belt and him holding it had caused her death. “I honestly can’t say for certain, but to me, yes,” he replied. “It was the way she came down on top of me.”
Gardaí again repeated to the accused that what he was saying didn’t make sense. Mr Satchwell said he wasn’t trying to “bulls**t” them and that he was going to prison regardless. “I’m going to prison, there will be no jury because I’m going to plead guilty, I’m telling you that now.”
The trial continues on Thursday before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of five men and seven women.
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 – née Dingivan – at that address between March 19th and March 20th, 2017.
