Man who buried wife under stairs guilty of murder

A man who killed his wife and kept her body hidden for years under the stairs of their County Cork home has been found guilty of her murder.

Tina Satchwell, who was 45, was killed by Richard Satchwell in March 2017.

Days after the murder he reported her missing and then kept lying about what happened to her.

In October 2023 gardaí (Irish police) returned to the couple's home in Youghal for a futher search, where they found her body buried in a makeshift grave.

Mrs Satchwell's relatives gathered outside the Central Criminal Court in Dublin to speak to the media after the guilty verdict.

In a statement, they described her as a "kind, loving, gentle soul" and added that the impact of her loss on their family could not be put into words.

Richard Satchwell, a 58-year-old truck driver, had pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife between 19 and 20 March 2017.

He reported her as a missing person on 24 March that year.

He told gardai that he came home from running errands to find she had left him.

He also alleged his wife had run off with €26,000 (£22,000) of the couple's savings.

The home belonging to the couple on Grattan Street in Youghal was searched by gardaí in June 2017 but at that time Mrs Satchwell remained missing.

During the trial, it was revealed the original search team found the house dirty with dog faeces on the floor, but the stairs seemed to be made of relatively new wood.

They also noticed an unpainted wall at the side of the stairs covered with relatively new plasterboard, but a forensic scientist detected no blood at the scene.

In March 2023, on the sixth anniversary of her disappearance, gardaí renewed their appeal for the public's help to find Tina Satchwell.

They searched the couple's home again and this time, with the help of two builders, they discovered the skeletal remains of the missing 45-year-old.

She had been wrapped in a black plastic bag and buried face down in a grave under the stairs.

She was wearing her pyjamas and dressing gown, and her wallet was in the pocket of the dressing gown.

The cause of her death could not be determined due to the advanced state of decomposition of her remains.

Richard Satchwell was then arrested and charged in connection with the murder of his wife.

At that point he changed his story, claiming his wife had tried to stab him in the head with a chisel on the morning of 20 March 2017.

He claimed he defended himself by using the belt of her dressing gown to restrain her, and she collapsed limp into his arms.

He later transferred her body into a disused freezer before travelling to his wife's relatives in Fermoy to ask if they had seen her.

That same day he reported her missing at Fermoy garda station.

Two days later, he buried her body under the stairs.

He claimed to gardaí he put supermarket tulips into the makeshift grave, before covering it with concrete.

But the trial heard he attended a driving course and a car boot sale before the burial.

He also gave away the freezer he had stored his wife's body in, after advertising it online.

Satchwell later took part in public appeals to find his wife, and gave several media interviews telling lies about what happened on the day his wife disappeared.

He had claimed to journalists that he had long been a victim of domestic violence but had never defended himself during attacks from his wife.

During the murder trial a prosecuting barrister said the defendant's account had more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese.

It was revealed that on 24 March 2017, a search had been carried out on Mr Satchwell's laptop for the term "quicklime" which can be used to speed up decomposition of human remains.

His month-long trial began at the end of April 2025 and the jury heard evidence from about 50 witnesses.

After almost nine and a half hours of deliberations, the jury rejected Satchwell's claim that he acted in self-defence and found him guilty of murder.

Speaking outside the court surrounded by Mrs Satchwell's family members, her relative Sarah Howard read a statement to reporters.

"During this trial, Tina was portrayed in a way that is not true to who she was," she said.

"Tina was our precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter. Her presence in our life meant so much to us all."

Ms Howard said the victim "loved her animals like they loved her" and that was how her family wanted her to be remembered.

"Today as a family we finally have justice for Tina," Ms Howard added.