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INVESTIGATING GARDAÍ HAVE denied that Richard Satchwell was made carry out a “perp walk” after he was charged with murdering his wife Tina, with defence counsel putting it to a detective that his client was “paraded before the press” while handcuffed.
The trial also heard today that members of the press were able to tweet that Satchwell was going to be charged before gardaí had actually done so.
In cross-examination, Brendan Grehan SC, defending, asked Detective Garda David Kelleher whether gardaí as a “corporate entity” were “overcompensating” for their initial failure in the investigation when Richard Satchwell was formally charged at Cashel Courthouse in October 2023 with Tina Satchwell’s murder.
Counsel said that the British truck driver was handcuffed to the front and “marched” by five gardai into Cashel District Court, with the patrol car having pulled in quite a distance away from the courthouse.
The Central Criminal Court has heard that on 24 March 2017, Richard Satchwell told gardaí that his wife Tina had left their home four days earlier but that he had no concerns over her welfare, feeling she had left due to a deterioration in their relationship.
The accused formally reported Tina Satchwell missing the following May, but her body was not discovered for over six years, when gardaí in October 2023 conducting “an invasive search” of the Satchwell’s home found her decomposed remains in a grave that had been dug underneath the stairs.
Det Gda Kelleher told Gerardine Small SC, prosecuting, today that he charged Richard Satchwell with the murder of his wife Tina at Cobh Garda Station on 13 October 2023. The detective said he then cautioned the accused for a second time.
Det Gda Kelleher said Richard Satchwell had replied “guilty or not guilty, guilty” to the charge.
Under cross-examination, Det Gda Kelleher told Grehan that he could not recall explaining what the offence of murder was to the defendant in comparison to other forms of homicide, such as manslaughter.
Det Gda Kelleher agreed with defence counsel that throughout the accused’s second detention, Richard Satchwell admitted he had lied about Tina “having simply disappeared” and told gardaí that his wife had died in the course of a struggle.
The detective also agreed that the accused had never deviated from that position throughout his entire detention.
He told Grehan that the defendant’s solicitor Eddie Burke was not present when the accused was charged by gardaí with the murder of his wife. Asked whether Burke had left Cobh Garda Station shortly before 7pm on the evening of 13 October, the detective told Grehan he did not know this at the time.
“It would appear no one had contacted Mr Burke to tell him his client was being charged?” asked Grehan. The detective said he had not contacted Burke and also agreed no other gardaí had.
“Were you aware a number of members of the press were advised Mr Satchwell was going to be charged?” asked Grehan. “At the time of charging I didn’t know anything about that,” replied Det Gda Kelleher.
“But they were able to tweet about it before you charged him at 8.07pm?” pressed the barrister. The detective said he was aware that the press had “tweeted” about the charging.
The witness said he had placed handcuffs to the front of Richard Satchwell’s body when he brought him to Cashel District Court in Co Tipperary the following day to be formally charged.
“Why was it necessary to handcuff him on this occasion when you didn’t consider it necessary to handcuff him on two previous occasions?” asked Grehan. The detective said he thought it was necessary.
Asked whether he knew what a “perp walk” was and had he ever seen a person who had just been charged being paraded before the press, the detective told counsel that this “certainly wasn’t the case”. He said he had not charged anyone with murder before this event.
Grehan asked the witness whether five gardaí had “escorted” Richard Satchwell into Cashel Courthouse on 14 October. “There could have been more as the media were there,” he replied.
The lawyer asked the witness whether he recalled the garda car “pulling in quite a distance away” from the courthouse, rather than at it. “I’ve no control over where the car stopped,” he said.
“But you agree Mr Satchwell was then taken out of the car and marched with all the gardai around him up to court?” asked Grehan, which the detective agreed with.
“There were full phalanx of the media present, cameras and the like?” continued Grehan, which the detective also agreed with.
Asked whether this was a “perp walk”, Det Gda Kelleher replied: “Now I know what one is, I wouldn’t have used that terminology”.
Grehan asked the witness whether gardaí as a “corporate entity” were “overcompensating” for their failure in the investigation in 2017. The detective said he could only speak about his involvement in the investigation from 2021.
Asked whether he had “any view” about the search of Richard Satchwell’s home on Grattan Street in 2017, the detective said it allowed him to build a foundation from 2017 “to work on material available to me at that time”.
“Did gardaí need a forensic archaeologist to tell them about whether most domestic homicides result in a body being buried?” asked Grehan. The detective said experts were consulted and they were invaluable.
A forensic archaeologist has told the trial how she reported it was possible that Tina Satchwell had been killed at her house and her body concealed there, after her research found that the majority of victims in “concealment” homicides are disposed of within one kilometre of their home address.
Questioned by Grehan as to whether any expert was consulted in relation to what Richard Satchwell had told gardai about how Tina had died, the detective said there wasn’t.
Det Gda Kelleher agreed with counsel that Satchwell had stuck to his account as to how his wife had died, despite the efforts of gardaí, in the course of his interviews.
“He also told you that Lorraine Howard could verify some of what he had said about being assaulted by Tina Satchwell?” asked counsel. The detective said he was aware the accused had said that in his interviews with gardaí and agreed he had not been challenged.
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of five men and seven women.
Richard Satchwell (58), with an address at Grattan Street, Youghal, Co Cork has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 45-year-old wife Tina Satchwell – nee Dingivan – at that address between 19 and 20 March 2017, both dates inclusive.
Earlier, now retired doctor Deirdre O’Grady told Grehan under cross examination that Tina Satchwell would have briefly attended her practice in the 1990′s. She said she was not the deceased’s GP when she had disappeared.
The witness told Grehan that she did not remember being called out by Richard Satchwell to the Satchwell’s home in April 1993.
She said she remembered Tina attending her practice but had no recollection of the deceased informing her about Richard Satchwell taking an overdose. She said she would have had it in her notes “if something as serious as that” was brought to her attention.
Grehan put it to the witness that his client said he had attended her surgery with scratches on his face. O’Grady said she had no medical notes of this, nor of the accused’s attendance at her surgery, adding that she had kept “excellent medical records throughout” her entire career.
Grehan told the witness he would need to know when Tina had attended her surgery from the early 1990s up until 1999. He told O’Grady he would require her to return to court once she had checked her records.
John Keohane told Small he had first met Tina at a car boot sale and said she was a very nice person, who was well dressed and wore expensive clothes. The witness said he met the couple at a car boot sale in Carrigtwohill on 19 March 2017.
He said Tina showed him a beautiful jacket and told him: “I have one man, one man only and I love him so much”. He also recalled Tina saying to him that she would never hurt Richard as she loved him so much.
Keohane said he met Richard Satchwell the following week at another car boot sale, where the accused was selling Tina’s clothes.
He said Satchwell told him that his wife left him the previous night, took €25,000 from their attic and that he hadn’t seen her since. He said the accused told him Tina was “a street angel and house devil” and had hit him in the face and broken two of his teeth.
Under cross-examination, Keohane told Grehan that Tina had “an expensive eye” and would wear clothes for a while before selling them on again and buying some more.
The witness said Tina had bought an expensive jacket and perfume when he remarked that she “must be meeting a man tonight”. “She said ‘I wouldn’t touch another man’ – she had one man, one man only and ‘loved him so much’”.
He agreed that when he met Richard Satchwell without his wife, the accused told him that Tina used to beat him.
Garda Conor McCarthy said he was part of the search team at Grattan Street on 13 October 2023 and had found a chisel on top of a reusable shopping bag in the front bedroom on the first floor of the house. The red and black-handled chisel was shown to the jury.
Describing the “wood chisel” for the jury, Grehan said it had a sharp pointed top with chamfered sides and was used for making joints with woodwork, where one has to “hack them out”. The witness told Grehan he didn’t know whether the chisel was ever sent for forensic examination.
Under cross-examination, Detective Garda Fergal Whelton told Grehan he had photographed the chisel on 13 October 2023.
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