The author of a new book about the gruesome murder of Tina Satchwell has told how her killer husband lied and tried to ‘manipulate’ him while his wife lay buried just feet away in their home.
Richard Satchwell murdered his wife and then reported her missing, sparking a highly publicised search across the country and checks at ports and airports for the 47-year-old.
Six and a half years later, Tina’s skeletal remains were discovered wrapped in black plastic sheeting under the stairs of their home in Youghal, Co. Cork.
Her husband was later convicted of her murder but he has never admitted to the crime and it is still not known how Tina was killed.
Experts agree it was likely it was not the English national’s first act of violence toward his wife.
RTÉ’s former security correspondent Barry Cummins was one of several journalists who interviewed Satchwell during the search for Tina, which was recounted during a high-profile murder trial last year.
The veteran reporter – whose book about the notorious murder and attempted cover up, Buried Secrets, has just been published – said the case affected him more than any other he has covered in his 30-year career.
‘Yeah, it did… I think because I spent so much time with him,’ he told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘I’ve worked with missing person reports for decades, and while Richard was different and I did have suspicions about him, I was meeting with him on the basis that this was a person making an appeal for his wife.
‘But I now know that all he was doing he was seeking to skew the whole story. He was taking up time, seeking to divert attention.
‘It affected me more than any other story because of the time I gave him but also because of the subsequent knowledge of what he did – and of course all the secrets that were kept within that house.’
In March 2017, Tina Satchwell, nee Dingeran, vanished from her home. Her husband claimed she had left with two suitcases and €26,000 in cash.
Gardaí searched the house and found nothing. Journalists interviewed Satchwell, including Mr Cummins, who sat unknowingly just feet from Tina’s hidden grave.
The author said his book is part ‘true crime investigation’ and part ‘personal reckoning’.
Asked about the latter, he explained: ‘I spent a lot of time with this man doing interviews. It’s in the knowledge now that an awful lot of what he said to me was lies and it’s in the knowledge that he sought to manipulate everybody that he met. He tried to manipulate me as well.
‘I was so physically close to where Tina lay buried and I was sitting down with the person responsible for her murder. So the reckoning is the coming to terms with all that and the processing of all that.’
Mr Cummins said he has suspicious about Satchwell even before he met him in person. But he also admits that, until he was eventually arrested and charged with his wife’s murder, he could not be 100 per cent sure he was the killer.
He recalled: ‘Even before I met him, I had some suspicions from watching other interviews he was doing with reporters.
Richard Satchwell appearing on the Ray D'Arcy Show on RTÉ television - the wife killer spoke to several journalists during the search for his Tina
Barry Cummins said his book is part ‘true crime investigation’ and part ‘personal reckoning’
Vveteran reporter Cummins – whose book about the notorious murder and attempted cover up, Buried Secrets, has just been published – said the case affected him more than any other he has covered in his 30-year career
‘From the first meeting I had suspicions on the basis of what he said. On one hand, he was claiming to love Tina, saying that he was devoted to her, but then he said one thing which struck me as odd. He said: “She loves herself too much to harm herself.”
‘I just thought that was a really off thing to say about somebody. So from the get go, I had some suspicions.
'But on the other hand, I was still saying that although this man is odd and says odd things, maybe he’s not the answer.
‘I was trying to keep my mind open. But then the second time I met him he actually revealed that he’d left Tina for a year previously.
‘Again, I thought: “Well, that’s new for a man who claims he is constantly by his wife’s side, and for 12 months he wasn’t.”
'By the end of the fourth interview I still hadn’t a clue where she might be. So until he was arrested and charged and Tina’s body was found, I never said he definitely did it.’
Tina’s remains were so badly decomposed it was impossible for pathologists to ascertain her cause of death.
In garda interviews, Satchwell claimed his wife had ‘come at him’, and that he put his hands to her throat to protect himself, and she then fell limp.
Tina Satchwell’s skeletal remains were discovered wrapped in black plastic sheeting under the stairs of their home in Youghal, Co. Cork
Cummins said he found it strange that Satchwell would proclaim his love for Tina, above, one minute, but then claim 'she loves herself too much to harm herself'
But the jury in Satchwell’s murder trial overwhelingly rejected his story.
Mr Cummins said it remains to be seen if Satchwell will ever come clean about how he killed his wife.
‘He didn’t give evidence at his own trial. He had that opportunity and didn’t take it so the only account is the one after he was arrested in 2023.
'For a man who spoke so much in 2018 and 2019, I felt it was very, very possible he was going to give evidence in his own trial.
‘The next opportunity for him to tell the truth would be Tina’s inquest whenever that’s held. He is the man with the information, the only person still alive who can tell what happened on that day.’