'The dog was licking up my tears when Tina didn't come home'

Accused claimed that his wife hit him and bit him over two decades

- BY PAUL HEALY

RICHARD Satchwell told gardai that his wife Tina threatened to leave 'probably 200 times' and that if she 'turned up tomorrow' he didn't see a future with her.

Yesterday a jury of seven women and five men heard a transcript of an over four-hour interview with Satchwell conducted by Detective Sergeant David Noonan in an interview room in Cork on July 20, 2021.

In the interview Satchwell alleged his wife injured him several times over the years and that she may have been "molested" or "raped" as a child.

He also said they never "took sexually again" after her brother died in 2012, and that if she turned up now, she would want to have been in a coma.

He also spoke about the night before he said Tina vanished - how he ran a bath for her, "ran baby oil on her body" and massaged her feet.

Satchwell further told gardai about how he "didn't sleep" after Tina didn't return home and that their dog Ruby was 'licking up the tears" as he sat there on the couch and felt like he was in 'Groundhog Day' for four days.

He said he believed Tina had gone to Frank or Florence Dingivan in Fermoy - and he fully expected to see her there when he called to their house following a doctor's appointment on the Friday, March 24.

STAIRS

Satchwell, 58, denies the alleged March 2017 murder of his wife Tina, 45-whose remains were found behind a wall under the stairs of the home he shared with her on Grattan Street in Youghal in October 2023.

well told Det Sgt Noonan of his wifes disappearance: "If she (Tina) turned up tomorrow, anything short of being in a coma for four years, I don't see much of a future."

He also alleged he believed she may have deliberately gone missing as a means of getting back at him after he left her for a period in 2002.

Det Sgt Noonan outlined to Satchwell that he was conducting a 'witness-led' interview with him and that he wanted him to go into detail and do most of the talking.