Richard Satchwell told gardaí he buried his wife's body under the stairs at their home as he wanted to keep her with him and did not want to leave her alone.
In an interview carried out by gardaí following the discovery of human remains at the Satchwells’ house in Youghal, more than six-and-a-half years after he reported his wife missing, Mr Satchwell said the day his wife died was the worst day of his life but he that he had a sense of relief that it was out.
He told gardaí he used to talk to the area where he had buried his wife Tina almost every day, telling her where he had been and what he had seen.
The jury has been watching a recording of the interview with Mr Satchwell following his rearrest on 12 October 2023. Gardaí had discovered his wife's body the previous evening.
Mr Satchwell told gardaí he came in from his shed on the morning of 20 March 2017 and saw his wife scraping at plasterboard that he had put up, with a chisel.
He said he asked her what she was doing and may have startled her. He said she "flew at him" with such force that he fell backwards.
He said he put his hands up and used her dressing gown belt, which he said was at her neck, to try to hold her off as she was going for him with the chisel.
He said the next thing her body went limp. He said she was in a blind rage and it was the only time he ever truly defended himself against her.
He said it happened in a blur and he could not say how many times she went for him with the chisel. Afterwards he said he just lay there with her in his arms while their two dogs came in and licked her.
Asked what caused her to die, he said he imagined it was the way she was forcing her weight down on top of him, and not being able to breathe, with the belt being where it was.
When gardaí asked him to demonstrate how he was holding the belt he said: "Please don't."
Mr Satchwell said he went to Dungarvan to try to keep everything normal and on the way lit a candle for Tina in a church.
When he came back he said he lay on the floor with Tina in his arms all night. Asked why he did not call anyone, he said he felt panic and shame.
Mr Satchwell said he laid her body on a couch and then put her in a chest freezer in their shed to keep her away from the dogs.
He told gardaí that a few days later he dug out an area under the stairs which did not have concrete in it. He said he was robotic, working on automatic.
He said it was light when he started digging and dark when he stopped. When he had finished he said all his knuckles were bleeding.
He got his wife’s body from the freezer and laid her on the kitchen floor. He had intended to put a dress with roses on her that she liked and had not worn yet but he said he could not.
He said the entire episode was "stupid" but he wanted a "self-funeral" and was trying to make it "some bit special".
He said he wanted her to know that "the hand that killed her was also the hand that loved her".
Satchwell told gardaí he couldn't go back on lie - court
He went around shops trying to find roses to put in the grave but eventually found some tulips in Tesco.
Mr Satchwell described putting black plastic sheeting that they had used to lay out goods at car boot sales into the grave so his wife wouldn’t get dirty.
He said he carried her into the hole - and did not "chuck her down". He said he was not disrespectful. He said he was in the hole with her at one stage and said if he could have he would have covered both of them.
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He said he knew it was sick but he did not want to leave her alone and wanted to keep her with him.
He said the gardaí would not believe the amount of times he spoke to that piece of ground. And he said he should have just let her stab him and let it be the end of him.
Mr Satchwell said that he still talked to Tina and still dreamed about her.
At the start, he said he used to open the door to the area under the stairs and used to sit inside and talk to her virtually every day, sometimes for hours.
He told interviewing garda David Noonan that the garda would probably never do anything as evil as he had done and he knew he was a bad person. But he was just trying to protect himself.
He said he was not a monster and it all happened so fast. The worst thing of all he said, was that once the lies started he could not stop.
He said he felt like taking his own life a number of times, but did not because of the couple’s two dogs.
No fracture evidence on Tina Satchwell's body, court told
Earlier, a specialist in the examination of bones told the court that there was no evidence of any fractures to Ms Satchwell's body either at the time of her death or in the past.
Forensic anthropologist Laureen Buckley told the court that Ms Satchwell’s remains were discovered face down, buried under the stairs at her home, with her head towards the higher part of the stairs.
A large stone slab had been placed over the soil covering her head.
Her lower legs were folded back up over her thighs. Her body was covered in black plastic and a sheet and she was wearing a dressing gown.
Her right arm was tightly flexed over her front while her left arm was loosely flexed.
Her body was more preserved on the front because she was lying face down, Ms Buckley said, while the back of her body was more skeletonised.
Her skull was detached from her spinal column due to decomposition but some of her hair was still attached.
Ms Buckley said the body could be identified as female from the remaining soft tissue and she estimated her height as being around 166cm or 5ft 5".
General degeneration in her spinal column suggested the woman had been over 45 years old.
She said she found no evidence of any fractures to any bones including the skull.
She said a small bone called the hyoid bone, which supports the tongue, was also intact.
Under cross examination, Ms Buckley said she had been a bone specialist and had been helping in criminal investigations for over 20 years.
She agreed with defence counsel Brendan Grehan that she would often deal with cases where there was trauma to bones caused by bullets or knives.
She agreed there were cases where severe trauma or fractures to the skull and other bones was apparent.
Ms Buckley said she found no evidence of any fractures at all on Ms Satchwell’s body.
She agreed that the hyoid bone is a bone sometimes found damaged in strangulation cases although she said this was not always the case.
In Ms Satchwell’s case it was intact.
She also told the court she found no evidence Ms Satchwell had ever suffered injuries of any sort to any of her bones in the past.
Earlier the court heard from builder Patrick O'Connor who was part of the team who worked with the search team who searched the Satchwell's home in Youghal in October 2023.
Mr O'Connor said the focus had been on an extension to the rear of the property.
But on the evening of 11 October, Garda Brian Barry mentioned the stairs in the sitting room as an area of interest.
When Garda Barry noted that brickwork built up along the side of the stairs looked to be of pretty poor quality, they looked a bit closer.
Builder James McNamara went under the stairs and pulled back a piece of old lino.
Mr O'Connor said they could see the shape of new concrete, which had been placed in a rectangular shape, around six foot long by three foot wide.
He said Mr McNamara used a heavy demolition hammer to break out a part of the area.
They could feel something soft and could see black/grey coloured plastic.
Mr O'Connor said the builders left the house at that stage and returned the next day to take away the brick wall.
Under cross examination by defence counsel Paula McCarthy, Mr O’Connor said when new concrete is poured into a house that is around 60 or 70 years old, it will be much lighter in colour than the original concrete.
