A cousin of alleged murder victim Tina Satchwell has told a court that she never saw her be “violent or aggressive”.
Sarah Howard also told the court that she thought it was “strange” that her cousin’s husband, Richard Satchwell, had offered her a chest freezer in the weeks after she disappeared.
Satchwell, of Grattan Street in Youghal, is accused of murdering his wife between March 19 and 20, 2017.
Mrs Satchwell’s remains were found under the stairs in the living room of their Co Cork home in October 2023, six years after Satchwell reported her missing.
Giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, Ms Howard was asked by prosecution barrister Gerardine Small if she had ever witnessed Mrs Satchwell being violent or aggressive, to which she replied: “Never.”
Ms Howard said she was “very close” to her cousin, that they would have spent a lot time together, going swimming, walking the dogs and going around the shops in Fermoy.
Asked to describe her, she said Mrs Satchwell was “kind-hearted, loving, a family person” who loved animals – that she was “bubbly, social” and a “genuinely lovely person”.
She became emotional when she watched footage taken from RTE’s Crimecall aired after Mrs Satchwell went missing.
Ms Howard said her cousin used to visit her at her home, but that she did not see her as much after the couple moved to Youghal in May 2016.
She last saw Mrs Satchwell shortly before Christmas in 2016, and said that she was on “great form”, and that she “always had the dogs”.
She told the court she first heard her cousin was missing after Satchwell called her mother’s home in Fermoy on March 26, 2017.
After learning that she was missing, she rang Mrs Satchwell’s phone but there was no answer.
She then contact Satchwell and asked where she was and what had happened to her, adding it was unusual that she left the dogs.
Satchwell told her that there had been an argument and she had left him.
He claimed during the phone call that she had thrown a cup at him and taken a sum of money, and that two suitcases were missing from their home.
She also gave evidence that Satchwell told her they had been at a car boot sale the previous weeks and that Mrs Satchwell had told him she had wasted 28 years with him.
“I never heard any of that before,” Ms Howard told the court.
When Ms Small asked whether she had ever heard of cups being thrown before, she replied: “Never.”
She also said in her evidence that on March 30, 2017 she received a text message from Satchwell offering her “their big chest freezer” for free.
She said she did not respond and when asked why, as she thought it was unusual.
“I thought it was very strange. He is not the kind to give stuff.”
She recalled how she once went to a car boot sale with her two children, where Satchwell had a stall.
The court was told that her children picked up a CD and nail varnish and Satchwell charged them 50 cents each for the items.
“So when I was offered something for free like that I thought it was very unusual,” she added.
A number of text exchanges between Satchwell and Ms Howard in the months after Mrs Satchwell went missing were read to the court.
Ms Howard asked Satchwell several times whether there was any news about his wife.
She said she used to spent a lot of time with her cousin, that she would often take her away and into their local town, including the time she got her ears pierced when she was four or five.
She agreed that the loss of Mrs Satchwell has deeply affected her.
Asked if she would describe Satchwell as being besotted and obsessed with his wife, she replied: “I suppose. He was always with her.”
Mr Grehan said that in a statement she made to gardai after Mrs Satchwell went missing, she said that Satchwell was “so obsessed with Tina that he couldn’t have caused her harm”.
“That was before,” Ms Howard replied in court.
Asked whether others in her family had seen Mrs Satchwell display violent behaviour, she said she was not sure.
The prosecution has now concluded its evidence.
The trial continues.
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