A cause of death for Tina Satchwell, whose skeletal remains were found buried under her Co Cork home more than six years after she disappeared, cannot be determined, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the continuing trial of Richard Satchwell, who denies murdering his wife, that the cause of Ms Satchwell’s death could not be established during a postmortem due to the level of decomposition.
Dr Bolster said the significance of the presence of a dressing grown belt – draped diagonally from the left across the front of the body, brought under the right arm and then knotted – was “unclear”. She said it was in “a very unusual position”.
The pathologist said Ms Satchwell’s skull had come apart from her body due to decomposition and there was no evidence of any bone fractures.
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Under cross-examination by defence counsel Brendan Grehan, Dr Bolster said the position of the belt was “not a usual place” to knot a dressing gown. She agreed that the belt was neither around the neck nor the body. She agreed that the positioning of it made it appear “like something used to carry a body”.
“That was my impression when I saw this,” she said, adding that she said she has been moving bodies all her life and ligatures are very often used as a means to do so.
Dr Bolster agreed there were no bone fractures, no evidence of previous fractures or any signs of trauma to the bones.
There was no fracture to the hyoid bone in the neck which, she agreed with Mr Grehan, has not much more than the consistency of a matchstick. In her experience of cases of manual strangulation or throttling, this particular bone is fractured in about 73 per cent of cases with a much lesser incidence of fracturing, about 24 per cent, in cases of ligature strangulation.
The pathologist said she has carried out more than 30,000 postmortems in her career.
Dr Bolster was giving evidence in the continuing trial of Mr Satchwell (58) who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Satchwell (45) at their home on Grattan Street, Youghal, between March 19th and 20th, 2017.
The jury has heard decomposed human remains, identified as those of Ms Satchwell, were discovered during a forensic search of the property on October 11th, 2023, some 6½ years after Mr Satchwell reported his wife missing.
After the remains were discovered, Mr Satchwell told gardaí his wife had come at him with a chisel on the morning of March 20th and that he had used the belt of her dressing gown to fend her off. He said she “went limp” and died.
The prosecution case is that Mr Satchwell put his wife’s body in a freezer in a shed before burying her in a grave dug under the stairs in their home.
In evidence ton Tuesday, Dr Bolster told Gerardine Small SC, prosecuting, that she was asked to attend the scene at Grattan Street on October 12th, 2023, and that she examined the remains of Ms Satchwell, which were wrapped in black plastic. She concluded a postmortem the following morning in the mortuary in Cork.
The pathologist agreed that the remains were skeletal and Ms Satchwell’s medical records showed she was previously in good health.
The body was wrapped in what looked like a soiled bed sheet and bones could be seen protruding through the sheet, the court heard. The body was lying face down and was wearing a dressing gown.
A gold-coloured purse, labelled Playboy, was removed from the pocket, and contained various cards, including a Tesco club card and a public service card in name of Tina Mary Satchwell.
The trial continues at the Central Criminal Court before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven women and five men.
