Missing woman’s husband condemns gardaí over social media post

The husband of missing Cork woman Tina Satchwell has called on two gardaí to write personal apologies to him after they appeared to mock his wife's disappearance in a social media post.

Richard Satchwell said he was deeply upset when he learned from An Garda Síochána on Saturday that a post of a photograph of two serving officers holding a sign saying "Tina Come Home" had gone viral.

“Late on Saturday evening I got a call from An Garda Síochána advising me that there was a photograph of some kind gone viral on social media involving two guards and something to do with a sign saying ‘Tina Come Home’, which they [An Garda Síochána] have apologised for,” he said.

Speaking to TV3, Mr Satchwell said Garda management had told him that they would deal internally with the two officers, who are based in east Cork but are not part of the team investigating Ms Satchwell's disappearance.

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“I felt sick, I felt sick . . . that they should find it funny and make a joke out of the predicament that I find myself in over Tina’s disappearance,” he told TV3.

Asked if he wanted to see the two officers disciplined, Mr Satchwell said that was not an easy question to answer because “if they had drink taken, they were not in control”.

However, he said he would like each officer to write to him and apologise for their actions.

Garda investigation

Gardaí began an investigation into the disappearance of Ms Satchwell from her home on Grattan Street in Youghal on March 24th, 2017, when Mr Satchwell reported that she had been missing since March 20th, 2017, but to date they have found no trace of her.

The Irish Times has learned that the post was taken by a third party from the private social media account of one of the officers and made public.

The Garda Press Office said in a statement that it never commented on social media posts from third parties.

According to a Garda source, Garda management in the North Cork Division, which covers the area where the officers are based, will carry out an internal inquiry into why the officers posted the image and how it ended up being made public.