Tina Satchwell: Man who buried wife under stairs sentenced to life in prison

Tina Satchwell: Man who buried wife under stairs sentenced to life in prison

A life sentence has been handed down to a man who took the life of his wife and concealed her body beneath the stairs of their residence in County Cork. Tina Satchwell, aged 45, was tragically slain by her husband, Richard Satchwell, in March 2017. The trial extended over nearly five weeks, culminating in the jury at the Central Criminal Court ruling Satchwell guilty of murder following under ten hours of deliberation last week. Subsequent to hearing victim impact statements from Tina Satchwell’s family, the judge mandated a life sentence for the perpetrator.

Emotions ran high as Tina’s cousin, Sarah Howard, conveyed her sentiments on Wednesday, emphasizing that this was a brutal act committed by someone who professed love for the victim. Lorraine Howard, Tina’s half-sister, expressed her profound discomfort regarding the circumstances under which Tina was interred in her own home, encapsulated in plastic beneath the stairs. Richard Satchwell’s actions were deemed unforgivable by Ms. Howard, who invoked Tina’s maiden name, Tina Dingivan, while recounting that Satchwell’s primary motivation was to retain control over her by keeping her buried in his residence.

In the wake of the murder, Satchwell initially reported his wife as missing and fabricated a narrative about her disappearance, including falsely alleging the disappearance of €26,000 in savings. In October 2023, law enforcement returned to the couple’s Youghal domicile for another search, unearthing Tina’s remains from an improvised grave. Following rearrest, Satchwell altered his version of events, asserting that his wife had attacked him with a chisel, leading to her accidental demise. Details emerged that he relocated her body to an unused freezer, buried her beneath the stairs, and encased her remains in cement.

As Satchwell made a court appearance donned in a light blue shirt, his defense counsel stated his intention to appeal the verdict, contending that there was no intent to harm Tina. The defense maintained Satchwell’s assertion that, irrespective of trial proceedings, Tina was indeed a kind-hearted individual. Contradictorily, the prosecution dismissed Satchwell’s narrative as farcical, highlighting the vast physical disproportion between perpetrator and victim, as well as the absence of concrete evidence affirming Satchwell’s innocence. The jury’s unanimous decision, reached after over nine hours of deliberation, established Satchwell’s culpability for intending to inflict harm or fatality upon his spouse

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