'It's clear your story is starting to come apart'

Garda tells accused evidence destroys his claims Husband says wife attacked him at home with chisel

- PAUL HEALY

THE trail of Richard Satchwell has heard how he pleaded with gardai not to show him pictures of his wife after she was found buried under the stairs of their home.

Truck driver Satchwell, 58, denies the murder of his wife Tina after she went missing from the home they shared on Grattan Street in Youghal, Co Cork in March 2017.

A jury of seven women and five men have so far sat through 11 days of evidence in which gardai have revealed how they uncovered Tina's remains buried in a three-foot grave under the stairs in October 2023.

Dublin Central Criminal Court has heard how Satchwell told gardai he initially placed Tina's body in a freezer in his shed, before digging the grave under his stairs and burying her in it.

On Thursday, the trial heard how Satchwell told gardai he did not want to see images of Tina's body as he wanted to remember her "the way she was, not the way I made her".

It came as the court had already heard him claiming to gardai his wife "flew" at him with a chisel on the morning of March 20, 2017, and that he fell to the floor and ultimately defended himself by holding the belt of her dressing gown to her throat until she went limp.

INTERVIEW

In the portion of an interview he gave to gardai that was played, Detective Sergeant David Noonan put it to the accused that he was “trying to protect” himself and that his story was “starting to come apart”.

Later the trial heard from Satchwell's GP Dr Patrick Burke, who said the accused looked “unwell” and was unshaven when he told him his wife was missing on March 30, 2017.

The doctor said the couple nearly always came to his practice together several times since 1999 and said the first time Richard ever mentioned violence was when his wife was missing.

He was asked by Prosecuting Counsel Gerardine Small SC if he ever stated, as was claimed by Satchwell, that he was right to wait four days to report her missing.