Truck driver Richard Satchwell has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife Tina.
The 58 year old claimed he accidentally strangled his wife and acted in self defence when she attacked him with a chisel at their home in Youghal Co Cork in 2017.
Satchwell who a made missing persons report repeatedly lied that his wife had left him but the truth emerged when her skeletal remains were found in a hole he had dug under the stairs of their home .
He told lie after lie and the more he lied the story became all the more unbelievable.
Richard Satchwell thought he was smarter than anyone else . He even thought he was able to outwit the Gardaí but he was wrong.
Satchwell’s crime and days of lying came to an end when his wife’s skeletal remains were found wrapped in plastic in an hole he had dug and covered with concrete under the stairs in the couple’s home in Youghal Co Cork in October 2023 .
45 year old Tina Satchwell was reported missing on March 24th 2017 by her husband , who had in fact strangled her 4 days earlier.
Once the remains were discovered the truck driver told investigators his wife was at times a violent person and on the day she died she had attacked him with a chisel and he tried to hold her off with the belt of her dressing gown.
He also told Detectives how for two days he had kept his wife’s body in a freezer before he buried her .
58 year old Richard Satchwell went on trial 6 weeks ago and denied murdering his wife of 25 years.
The murder trial heard from almost 50 witnesses including members of Tina Satchwell’s family and friends.
At todays sentencing hearing Ms Satchwells sister said Satchwell had wanted her where he could still have the ultimate control -under the stairs.
What was initially a missing persons case became a murder investigation and today the Richard Satchwell who was found GUILTY of the murder of his wife Tina begins the first day of the rest of his life behind bars.
