Richard Satchwell Found Guilty

walshb

AGS really dropped the ball on this one!!!

Orban6

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123500101#Comment_123500101

Even after the dog pointed to that area, it wasn't searched as it was full of junk or something. It was only when a Guard noticed that some of the concrete looked newer, that they broke it.

Beefcake82

All i can say about being found guilty is it was the correct outcome.

I expected a pivot in his defense to guilty by mental defect or similar due to the way he carried on in the public and based on what we heard from the Garda interviews.

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501219#Comment_123501219

There was a sofa in front of the area when the dog first showed interest (Satchwell said he used to sit there and talk to Tina). The next day they removed the sofa and the dog indicated strongly that there were human remains under the stairs, that's when it was searched

Tork

The Sunday World podcast about it is quite interesting. They dismiss that rumour about the plumbing during it. Nicola very much leans into the narrative of how controlling he was. That's a line I'm starting to hear elsewhere too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nYsQYtlM4o

valoren

Was it not a Guard seeing a difference between two photos of the staircase (one at the time of the disappearance and another later on) that gave them enough to perform a major search?

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123500918#Comment_123500918

Could it be that she was still officially a missing person at that time, so the Gardai would be limited in what they could do?

Exiled Rebel

What a prick to put the family through all this. It must of have been so difficult for them and the two witnesses in the box who had family members murdered in the past.

Without a doubt the man is a grade A scumbag. To think he would appeal time and again in the media for Tina to come home when she was under the stairs all the time. I hope he rots in prison.

hold my beer

This line on RTE today left me cold.

He told gardaí it was like a "self-funeral" and said he got tulips from the local supermarket to put into the grave before covering her with concrete.

Horrific story. RIP Tina

ctrl-alt-delete

Sounds like he took her life long before he murdered her. Hopefully, he won't appeal, and there can be closure now - I doubt that though.

blade1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123500046#Comment_123500046

You'd be surprised.

Plenty thought he was innocent even in the town.

I used to come across him most mornings between 5am and 5:30am.

He'd be out walking the dog.

I used to say to people close to me, (half joking and half serious) that he's doing a Shawshank redemption ie: digging a hole and then leaving the gravel out the leg of his pants while walking.

The guy you saw on TV and the guy in real life were like two different people.

Much more cocky aura off him in real life.

It was pretty well known at the time that the guards knew he did it but couldn't pin it on him.

Off topic, I was driving one day and he was coming against in his lorry.

He started flashing his lights at me.

A few hundred yards further out the road there was a speed camera.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501468#Comment_123501468

I agree. It sounds like Tina had no life at all. It seems she was able to do nothing on her own. She was a young healthy woman who never it seems even was allowed have a job. She couldn't drive or have friends. She was completely controlled by him.

His interviews were very odd where he would emphasize how great he was and how he would do anything for her. That he was a very loving husband. He then would say how Tina had a temper and paint her in a negative light. He also seemed to give the media the worst photos of her. Even after the body was found in his house he had the audacity not to plead guilty.

The right decision was reached. Justice for Tina has been done.

It sounds like Tina had a very tough life. May she rest in peace.

SuperBowserWorld

An awful tragic sad story. Simple and horrible. Stopped me in my tracks.

For so many reasons, finance, housing, cultural, religion, poor mental and physical health, lack of opportunities, kids, people stay together, when they really should not.

It should be much more normalised and easier to leave a bad relationship. People should not have to just suffer or be functionally "ok" all the days of their lives.

OscarMIlde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501771#Comment_123501771

Where I work has students and lecturing. I've seen posters on the walls around the building outlining red flags for a controlling relationship.

I really hope better awareness of these things will give some people the knowledge to leave before being sucked in.

HildaOgdenx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501723#Comment_123501723

Yes, that's the impression I got too. He was busy praising himself for all he did, but reading between the lines, he was very controlling.

May Tina rest in peace, and I hope that her family can take some degree of comfort from the verdict.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501857#Comment_123501857

Yes it was a very odd way to speak about someone you love who was supposedly missing. I found the interviews he done very strange - he was painting himself as a saint and that Tina was hard to live with - very odd

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123500701#Comment_123500701

This was reported everywhere, rte news etc and coincided with the gardai moving in the digging equipment.

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501899#Comment_123501899

wasn’t strange of him. It was perfectly normal for a killer spinning lies to cover himself should it be needed. Nut job

Big Bag of Chips

I gave up on the Crime World podcast after 2 or 3 episodes. Eamon Dillon's stuttering over his sentences was annoying me. I might try again.

I was following the case from a distance, but thought the interviews were all a bit off, for a man who knew exactly where his wife was. And yes the glowing praise for himself and how much he loved her was a bit suss. Very little mention of her other than to say she was fiery and prone to violence.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501916#Comment_123501916

Its not a great strategy he had though painting the missing person as a bad person and himself as great.

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501928#Comment_123501928

no, in doing so he was setting his defence (should he need it), and also painting her as volatile, whereby this painting would, or could lead people (AGS) to not disbelieve that she upped and left him.

cap.in.hand.

Looking at the cork FM interview ...he must have defrauded the social welfare out of a lot of money to get jail...So he must have been always economical with the truth when it suited until he was caught out

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501925#Comment_123501925

Yeah, he could be a bit stuttery alright. He was a lot better when Nicola was interviewing him. The final Crimeworld podcast is a good recap of the entire thing.

suvigirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501195#Comment_123501195

Did they? Can you explain how? Because it appears obvious that they always only had one suspect. And when they could prove it, they did.

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501983#Comment_123501983

Having a suspect is one thing, but taking years to join the dots is another. They missed several opportunities to bring this to closure far earlier. That’s ball dropping to me. Having the husband as a suspect was very normal. Basic stuff. They fell down on actual crime solving.

Irish times details it. Below some issues

Dr McCullagh pointed to a “red flag” at the Satchwell home during a search of the property by gardaí in June 2017: evidence of “home renovations” and of a new red brick wall at the side of the stairs. 

There was no invasive search of the property at that point but gardaí seized a laptop and other items.

An examination of that laptop showed another potential red flag: a YouTube video about the interaction of quicklime, which can disguise decomposition odours, with water was watched twice on March 24th, 2017

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501992#Comment_123501992

All well and good to say that after the fact, but we don't know what the Gardai did and didn't know as those years went by.

Plus the onus would be on the Gardai to make sure they had enough to turn it from a missing person case to a homicide case, that took time.

It's not like a cop show where you can go barging in with a warrant and a forensic team a few minutes after you ID a suspect.

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123502082#Comment_123502082

after the fact? 6 years or more to actually find her remains when there were clear red flags years before. I always try praise gardai, but here, they did not perform.. I’m convinced

https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41642575.html

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123502085#Comment_123502085

The red flag for me was that their house was on a street in a busy town. Richards story was that she left in daylight but no witnesses seen her and no CCTV picked her up anywhere. In this day and age it would be very hard avoid CCTV. Chances were very very high that she never left that house. Why didn't the gardai focus on the house more?

Leg End Reject

You have to balance the rights of individuals and the powers afforded to the Gardaí.

If they are allowed to rip apart houses, land and outbuildings based on an unproven suspicion what would happen? Will property owners just shrug their shoulders and undertake expensive repairs without complaint if nothing is found?

I think it's clear the Guards knew Richard was responsible but had to bide their time. The delay actually strengthened the case as videos of Satchwell's media interviews were shown to the jury. Had he kept his head down apart from the usual media appeals for information he might have been convicted of manslaughter instead of murder. But he spent years appealing for his wife to make contact and had journalists in his home near Tina's grave.

Leg End Reject

This is just chilling.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/0530/1516027-richard-satchwell/

The accused told gardaí how the couple partook in "rituals" seven nights a week where Satchwell, who said he always knew his role, would run Tina a bath with "as many suds as possible".

Only on a Sunday however, would he take polish off her toes while she soaked in the tub. "I never used to take the nail polish off her fingernails, they were precious," he commented.

He described how he would towel his wife off when she emerged from the bath, which he said "was the closest to physical contact" they had got in the past few years. Satchwell also detailed how he would apply baby oil or lotion to his wife and pedicure her feet.

We don't know how much, if any, of that is true, but that's creepy.