KILLER Richard Satchwell has already landed himself a cushy job in prison — as a cleaner.
The 58-year-old, who was handed a life sentence on Wednesday for the murder of his wife Tina, is due to today be transferred out of Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison, where he stayed during the trial.
He will be sent back to the B-division of Limerick Prison, where he has been assigned the job of tidying up the staff area.
Evil Satchwell, who murdered his wife in March 2017 at their home in Youghal, Co Cork, has been given the trusted position as he is deemed a model prisoner.
He is also on an enhanced regime, which means he gets extra phone calls and privileges.
A source said the killer is a recluse in lock-up, telling us: “Satchwell is as quiet as they come. He doesn’t talk to anybody.
“He’s due to be moved back to Limerick Prison today.
“He has been given a very trusted job, cleaning the staff mess, emptying bins and sweeping.
“After he was found guilty and brought back to Wheatfield Prison he appeared very shocked.
“There is a strong belief that he felt he was going to get off with murder and get found guilty of manslaughter.”
Monster Satchwell will serve the remainder of his life sentence alongside a number of notorious violent lags at Limerick.
Our source explained: “Satchwell is in the company of other well-known inmates at the prison, including Barbie Kardashian and killers Daniel Whelan and Kenneth Collopy.”
Tina’s skeletonised and partly mummified body was discovered buried face down in a secret grave underneath the stairs of their house during an invasive Garda search operation in October 2023.
Last month, a jury of seven women and five men found English truck driver Satchwell guilty of murdering Tina, whom her heartbroken family described as a “precious sister, cousin, aunty and daughter”.
During the five-week trial, the court heard how Satchwell had told lies for years to create the false impression that his wife was violent towards him and had left him, taking €25,000 in savings.
During the trial, the court heard how no cause of death could be established for Tina, 45.
Tina always saw the good in people but Satchwell was just selfish and only cared about himself.”
Investigator
Satchwell claimed she died while he was restraining her with a dressing gown belt across her throat as she tried to stab him with a chisel.
The calculated killer hid her body in an unplugged chest freezer for four days.
He then dug a makeshift grave under the stairs and dumped her body there, wrapped in a dressing gown and plastic sheet, and sealed it with a layer of concrete.
Satchwell waited for four days before informing the Gardai that she had gone missing.
He did not make an official missing person’s report until May 11, 2017.
Officers carried out a search of their Youghal pad in June 2017 but failed to find any evidence of what had happened to Tina.
HOUSE OF HORROR
By Ann Mooney
THE first time I met Richard Satchwell was about eight months after his wife Tina disappeared.
I believe I was the first journalist he brought into the murder house on Grattan Street in Youghal where he used the interview to appeal for Tina to come home.
I took about two steps into the hall and was hit by the most awful smell I’ve ever experienced.
In fact it was so bad that I stepped back out into the fresh air and told a photographer, John Delea, I didn’t know if I would be able to conduct the interview in the house because of the disgusting stench.
But I had gotten the interview with him, one he had refused to many other journalists, so I pulled myself together and went in.
The living room was an absolute mess. The smell pervaded through everything.
The two Jack Russell dogs — Heidi and Ruby — were allowed to run free everywhere, often peeing and pooing in the room without it having any effect on, or reprimand from, Richard.
The sights, sounds and smells still stay with me to this day.
The more contact I had with Richard, the more I was convinced he had killed Tina.
After leaving I got into my car and rang one of my Garda contacts who was working on the case.
I asked them if gardai had searched the house and was told they had, from top to bottom.
I remember clearly saying: “I never smelt anything like the smell in the house. I know the dogs are allowed to run around free doing whatever they want to do everywhere, but that still doesn’t account for the vile smell permeating throughout the ground floor area that I was in.”
I actually said: “Honestly there has to be a body there as nothing else could smell that bad.”
But even then I would not have even considered that there was a body buried in a grave underneath the stairs.
Did I think Richard killed his wife back in November 2017 when I met him for the first time face to face? Yes, I did.
His declarations of love for her, his obsession with her and her appearance, and his absolute belief that she was his and his alone are all the hallmarks of a man who is prepared to kill so that no one else could have the love of his life.
In August 2021 a new senior officer in charge, Supt Ann Marie Twomey, reviewed the case.
By the following year she found there were grounds to arrest Satchwell.
After he was lifted in October 2023 on suspicion of murder, Satchwell maintained his made-up story even when told a search team would be going through the walls and digging up his house.
But once Tina’s remains were found, Satchwell changed his story, claiming she died as he defended himself from being stabbed.
Satchwell married his wife Tina in 1990 in Manchester before moving to Ireland in the mid-1990s.
Although he was welcomed into Tina’s family and circle of friends, he kept his distance from those close to her.
He also spent months away from Cork when he returned to England.
Gardai also suspected he was jealous of wife’s friendships and popularity.
An investigator previously told us: “Tina always saw the good in people but Satchwell was just selfish and only cared about himself.
“It’s probable that he killed her because he knew she could have a life without him.
“He had nothing and no friends because he was very odd. The only person he really loved was himself.”
We last week revealed how cops believe the monster hatched his plan to kill Tina when he realised she was planning to leave him.
Detectives also suspect his decision to tell Gardai on March 24, 2017, that she had left him was also part of his plan to hide her brutal murder.
‘FLEW INTO ALIBI MODE’
Once he had murdered her and placed her body in a freezer, he drove a 50km round trip to Dungarvan as part of his efforts to have an alibi and cover his tracks.
He then sent an email to a company selling monkeys claiming his wife was going to leave him. He also collected his dole. The maniac was even looking for employment at the time of the murder.
He then buried Tina under the stairs of their home.
One senior investigator told The Irish Sun on Sunday: “The speed with which he flew into alibi mode would suggest a certain degree of planning in this horrific crime.
“He did a number of things very quickly and he put a lot of things into action after killing his wife.
“Once he had completed the murder, he then had a story in place about the disappearance and was portraying himself as a victim.
“He was also a great actor and had everything planned for the sole purpose of avoiding being arrested for the murder of a completely innocent woman.
“He had to have a strategy and that was playing the victim. He was a master of manipulation.”
They added: “He showed elements where he lacked empathy with her family, in the cynical way he offered the freezer unit to Tina’s cousin in which he had stored Tina’s lifeless body for a number of days.”
