Media interviews shown in court in Satchwell murder trial | Breaking News & Latest Ireland Updates

Media interviews shown in court in Satchwell murder trial — Legal Affairs Correspondent The jury in the trial of Richard Satchwell, who is accused of murdering his wife Tina in Cork just over eight years ago, h...

Legal Affairs Correspondent

The jury in the trial of Richard Satchwell, who is accused of murdering his wife Tina in Cork just over eight years ago, has been watching interviews given by Mr Satchwell to media organisations in the months after her disappearance.

In the interviews, Mr Satchwell, 58, says he never laid a finger on his wife and says he believes she is still alive.

Mr Satchwell has pleaded not guilty to murdering 45-year-old Tina Satchwell between 19 March and 20 March in 2017.

He told gardaí on 24 March 2017 that she had gone missing four days previously.

Her body was discovered more than six years later buried underneath the stairs in their home in Youghal in Co Cork.

Mr Satchwell then told gardaí she had died as he tried to hold her off with a belt while she attacked him with a chisel.

The jury watched an interview with TV3 News, now Virgin Media News, carried out in July 2017.

Asked if he had killed his wife, Mr Satchwell replied: "Never. I would never lay a finger on her." He added that he had never laid a finger on her in nearly 30 years of being together.

The jury also watched a Prime Time documentary by reporter Barry Cummins, broadcast on RTÉ in January 2018. In the footage, Mr Satchwell can be seen in the house with the couple’s two dogs, Heidi and Ruby, and their parrot, Valentine.

He also showed Mr Cummins a bottle of Cava he had bought for their 25th wedding anniversary, some months previously, which had not been opened.

In the documentary, Ms Satchwell’s cousin, Sarah Howard, described her as a fun, outgoing woman who loved fashion, swimming and walking. She said her cousin had never gone missing before and what had happened was a "complete mystery".

Mr Satchwell said his wife had been "troubled by something" in the months before she disappeared, and he felt she needed a break to get her head straight.

He said he was lonely because he had built his life around his wife, but said he did not believe she was dead.

He said Tina was not a pushover. If someone tried attacking her, he said "she'd pick the nearest thing up and whack them with it." He told Mr Cummins he just wanted her back.

Mr Satchwell was also interviewed by TV3 News as a wooded area was searched as part of the investigation into her disappearance. He said he was "praying and hoping" the search came to nothing but he said there was a possibility "no matter how small" that his wife could be behind the barriers.

In a live interview on the Ireland AM television programme on TV3, at around the same time, Mr Satchwell said everything was good between him and his wife. He said he could not come up with a reason as to why she would not have contacted him.

He said he had felt that he was a suspect in her disappearance originally but he did not feel that any longer. He said that he was providing the gardai with everything they wanted.

Asked why he had waited four days to report his wife missing, he said his GP had told him he was right to give her time before he went to gardaí.

Mr Satchwell said he believed she was still alive, as he said he was not "strong enough to go down the road and say the other." He said he just wanted her to get in touch with somebody.

He said he believed someone had helped her to get out of Youghal and he said that person should be ashamed of themselves.Mr Satchwell told Youghal community radio station, CRY 104FM, that his wife was a much stronger personality than he was.

He agreed there had been physical "skirmishes" where she had hit him but said he would never hit her back.

He said he would personally pity anyone who tried to harm her, as he said "no way anyone would lay a finger near Tina, without walking away with some physical damage."

Mr Satchwell said if she walked back in, he would put his arms around her and would then collapse on the floor with relief.

Asked if he felt angry, if Tina was alive, that she was letting him suffer, he said he did not feel angry, he felt disappointed.

He said he was willing to take a lie detector test when he had finished medication he was on because he had been suicidal.

He also asked anyone who thought they had seen his wife to come forward.

Mr Satchwell said he would leave the investigation of various sightings to gardaí as if he tried, he'd probably just muck it up. He said he prayed every day for a happy conclusion.