Linda and Charlotte Mulhall are sisters from Dublin, Ireland, known for having killed and dismembered the Kenyan immigrant, Farah Swaleh Noor, in March 2005.

Noor was killed with a Stanley knife wielded by Charlotte and struck with a hammer by Linda following a confrontation with the sisters and their mother, Kathleen Mulhall, whom he was dating.

His head and penis were sliced off and the rest of his corpse dismembered by the women and dumped in Dublin's Royal Canal where a piece of leg still wearing a sock was spotted floating near Croke Park ten days later.

The subsequent manhunt and the trial in October 2006 attracted intense media attention in Ireland as the true details of the crime slowly emerged. The sisters and their mother were arrested but released until Linda confessed to involvement in the crime. Kathleen Mulhall left the country at this point to live in England.

When Charlotte and Linda were charged with murder in December 2005, their father, John Mulhall, hanged himself in Phoenix Park.

As a result of the method they used to carry out the killing of Farah Swaleh Noor, Linda and Charlotte Mulhall were dubbed the Scissor Sisters by the media.

Justice Paul Carney, presiding over the trial, said during sentencing that it was "the most grotesque killing that has occurred in my professional lifetime". Charlotte Mulhall was given the mandatory life sentence and Linda Mulhall was given a 15-year sentence for manslaughter, with both being sent to Mountjoy Women's prison in Dublin.

Noor's head and penis were never recovered, although Linda later admitted they had put the head in rubbish bins around Phoenix Park. It was also thought that they carried the head by bus to Tallaght and buried it in a field, with Linda returning later to dig it up, carry it to another field using her son's schoolbag, smash it further with a hammer and bury it again.

Linda attracted further media attention when she slit her wrists and was sectioned. Charlotte also attracted media attention when a photograph of her holding a knife to a male prisoner's throat was published; that action resulted in an increased security presence in all Irish prisons and Charlotte was moved from Mountjoy to Limerick.

Kathleen Mulhall voluntarily returned to Ireland in February 2008 and faced several charges. She pleaded guilty to helping clean up the crime scene in order to conceal evidence and was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2009.

The case, which has dominated news coverage in Ireland from 2005 to the present day, has resulted in several books and has been examined in at least one television series. It was said by the Irish Independent's legal affairs correspondent Dearbhail McDonald to have "fuelled fears of ritual killings in Ireland".

Mulhall family background

The Mulhalls were from Kilclare Gardens, a working class area in Tallaght, south Dublin. Their parents John and Kathleen Mulhall raised a family of three boys and three girls. John Mulhall allegedly abused Kathleen.

Their marriage broke down and Kathleen entered into a relationship with Farah Swaleh Noor in 2002. Noor moved into their family home with Kathleen and John Mulhall took some of his children and moved out. He rented various accommodations in Dublin over a period of a year, then moved back into the home after Kathleen left and moved to Cork with Noor. Kathleen and Noor returned to Dublin in 2004. Noor allegedly subjected Kathleen Mulhall to regular beatings.

Linda Mulhall

Linda Mulhall was 30 years old at the time of the killing. She was unemployed, had left school early and had four children. The relationship with the father of her children broke up and she got into another relationship with an individual who subsequently abused them. Linda had a history of alcohol abuse and suffered from an addiction to heroin. She had one previous conviction in 1993 for larceny.

Charlotte Mulhall

Charlotte Mulhall was 23 years old when the killing took place. Like her sister, she had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. She had a number of minor previous convictions for criminal damage and public order offences and was charged with criminal damage and given the Probation Act in October 2005. She was also involved in prostitution.

During their trial, gardaí described the girls' upbringing as "troubled and tough".

Farah Swaleh Noor

Farah Swaleh Noor was 38-years-old at the time of his death. He arrived in Ireland in December 1996, claiming to be a Somalian called Sheilila Salim whose family had been killed in Mogadishu. Subsequent investigations revealed that he was in fact Kenyan and that his family was still alive.

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform ordered that he be deported but he appealed and was granted citizenship in March 1999 on grounds he became the father of an Irish-born child. He had four previous convictions for offences including intoxication, threatening and abusive behaviour and assault.

In 1997, he raped a mentally disabled 16 year-old Chinese girl. She later gave birth to a son. Two other women had children by him and both described having been raped by him.

Noor had faced eight charges of disorder and assault, one involving a sexual assault in which a knife was found at the scene by gardaí. He was convicted on three occasions but never served time in jail.

Noor lived in a number of areas in Dublin, including Dun Laoghaire and Firhouse, as well as the inner city before moving in with Kathleen Mulhall. Gardaí described him as being particularly violent towards women. Noor was a suspect in the unsolved murder of Raonaid Murray which took place in September 1999. Authorities are now satisfied Noor did not carry out this murder.

Events surrounding the killing

The killing took place at a flat Kathleen Mulhall was renting in a house on Richmond Cottages, Summerhill, on 20 March 2005. This was on the bank holiday of Saint Patrick's weekend.

Build-up to the killing

On the day of the killing, Linda, Charlotte, their mother and Farah Swaleh Noor had been drinking heavily in Dublin city centre. Farah bought vodka and Kathleen Mulhall purchased Coca-Cola which they drank as they walked around the city before stopping on the River Liffey Boardwalk where Charlotte and her mother took ecstasy tablets. They returned to Kathleen Mulhall's flat where the women took ecstasy. Kathleen Mulhall crushed a tablet into the victim's drink so they were all on the same "buzz".

Death of Farah Swaleh Noor

Linda and Noor were sitting on a two-seater couch with Charlotte sitting on the arm, when Noor started touching Linda in a sexual way. He spoke into her ear, put his arms around her waist and refused to let her go. Kathleen then started screaming at him and a verbal altercation took place where Kathleen Mulhall was alleged to have instructed them to ”just kill him for me” Charlotte picked up a Stanley knife and struck Noor across the throat, inflicting a wound that sent him to the ground. Linda then picked up a hammer and hit him on the head a number of times. Their mother looked on but didn't participate. Noor was stabbed at least 27 times. It may have been more, but pathologists had no opportunity to examine the full body.

Dismemberment and disposal of the corpse

Linda and Charlotte then dragged Noor's corpse into the bathroom where they began to dismember the remains. Noor's head, limbs and penis were severed using a kitchen knife and hammer. They put towels over his legs to stem the flow of blood. The dismemberment took a number of hours and the body parts were placed in black plastic bags and a sports bag before being disposed of in the Royal Canal. This took the three women several trips.

They decided not to throw the head in to prevent identification. The head was brought by bus to Tallaght where they walked through The Square Shopping Centre to Tymon North Park. They walked to where Charlotte dug a hole with a knife to bury the head. Kathleen Mulhall threw the knives and the hammer into a nearby pond. A number of days later, Linda Mulhall allegedly returned to the park and dug up the head. Using her son's schoolbag, she transferred it to a field in the Killinarden Estate, Tallaght, where she broke it up with a hammer before burying it again.

Garda Síochána investigation

The killing only came to light ten days later when Noor's leg, with a sock on the end, was seen floating in the canal, a few hundred yards from Croke Park. Garda sub-aqua divers retrieved most of the rest of his body in seven parts. Gardaí traced his identity through media appeals. Noor was only identified when someone recognised a t-shirt on the recovered torso. That key witness, a Somalian man who was the first to connect the missing Noor with the three Mulhall women, was paid a “substantial” reward by Crimestoppers. Noor's head and penis were never found.

The sisters and their parents were arrested in August but denied any knowledge of the killing. A number of weeks later Linda contacted investigating officers admitting her involvement. Gardaí took a voluntary statement from her at her home in Tallaght in August 2005. Until this, Gardaí had been making limited progress in the case. When Gardaí searched the Mulhall flat in Summerhill, they found bloodstains that were later confirmed to match Noor's DNA. After Linda's confession, Kathleen Mulhall fled the country in September 2005 and gardaí were unable to locate her again until January 2008. She was living in England.

Court cases

Murder trial of Linda and Charlotte Mulhall

Linda and Charlotte were both charged with murder and pleaded not guilty in the Central Criminal Court. Their trial took place in October 2006 with Linda Mulhall being found guilty of manslaughter while her sister Charlotte was found guilty of the murder of Noor. Linda's jury accepted her defence of provocation.

Charlotte Mulhall was given the mandatory life sentence and Linda Mulhall was given a 15-year sentence for manslaughter. The judge argued that Linda, a heroin addict, had initially tried to halt the trial by refusing to take methadone. Leave to appeal was refused for both sentences.

Linda Mulhall appealed the severity of her sentence on the grounds that it was passed without psychiatric and probation reports. This appeal failed, with the Court of Criminal Appeal finding the sentence to be appropriate.

Charlotte Mulhall requested leave to appeal her conviction on the grounds that Justice Carney had put pressure on the jury to reach a verdict even though the foreman had indicated they were deadlocked. This failed on the grounds that the defence did not raise objections to the comments during the trial and the fact that the jury was not affected by any alleged undue pressure to reach a verdict.

Court case against Kathleen Mulhall

Kathleen Mulhall voluntarily returned to Ireland in February 2008 and was charged with, among other offences, two counts of giving false information to gardaí about Noor's whereabouts, and withholding information which she "knew or believed" would be of assistance in prosecuting her daughters for Noor's murder. She was also charged with impeding an arrest in the murder investigation. She pleaded guilty to helping to clean up the crime scene in order to conceal evidence. Kathleen Mulhall was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2009.

Fallout and aftermath

Mulhall family

The girls’ father, John Mulhall, hanged himself in Phoenix Park when his daughters were charged with the killing in December 2005. He was not believed to have been involved in the killing.

Linda Mulhall turned to alcohol and slashed her arms, causing her to spend over a week in a psychiatric hospital. In April 2009, she claimed to fellow inmates that she had in fact smashed Noor's head and distributed the fragments in rubbish bins in the Phoenix Park. This first disclosure of where Noor's head had ended up, was referred to as "the final secret of the Scissor Sisters" by Cormac Looney in the Evening Herald.

Charlotte caused a further national controversy in 2008 when photographs of her holding a knife to the throat of a male prisoner in Mountjoy Prison were leaked to the press. As a result security in Irish prisons was increased. and Charlotte was moved to another prison in Limerick.

The girls' brother, James Mulhall, pleaded guilty to the robbery of two prostitutes, claiming he robbed the women to support his own six children and his sister Linda's four children whom he took on after she was jailed.

Books

The case received a high amount of attention due to the grotesque and macabre nature of the crime. This led to the sisters being dubbed "The Scissor Sisters" by the media after the pop group from New York, USA.

Several books were written on the circumstances surrounding the death of Farah Swaleh Noor:

• The Torso in the Canal — John Mooney (Maverick House, ISBN 978-1-905379-38-5)

• The Irish Scissor Sisters — Mick McCaffrey (Merlin Publishing, ISBN 1-903582-72-5) McCaffrey covered the case for the Sunday Tribune.

Television series

The 2009 RTÉ television series Killers featured the Mulhall sisters.

Wikipedia.org

Scissor Sister Confessions: 'Thank God I get to see my son every week, I can't wait to be a proper mum'

Killer mum Charlotte Mulhall reveals in secret letters that she's desperate to get out of prison

By Emma McMenamy - IrishMirror.ie

July 8, 2013

Brutal Scissor Sister Charlotte Mulhall is desperate to be a “proper mother” once she is released, her letters reveal.

The murderer, caged for life for killing her mum’s abusive lover, thanks God for the precious moments she spends with son Damien every week.

Mulhall, one half of the gruesome siblings who butchered African Farah Swaleh Noor, writes: “I can’t wait to get out to be a proper mother to him. I adore him to bits.”

In day two of her sensational letters, penned from Dublin’s Dochas Centre and first revealed in yesterday’s Irish Sunday Mirror, Mulhall also revealed she spends her days in prison hanging out with Black Widow killer Catherine Nevin.

The 28-year-old is serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of Mr Noor in 2005.

In the letters, shown above and seen by the Irish Mirror, the mum-of-one tells how she:

• IS very close to Nevin, who does her hair and make-up, but whom she brands a “devious c**t”,

• GETS bored in prison but is starting a new course,

• HATES her “Scissor Sister” nickname, and

• LONGS for the day she is released so she can be a “proper mother” to her seven-year-old son Damien and set up family with her partner Karen Kelly.

• Charlotte said: “I thank God I get to see my son every week. I can’t wait to get out to be a proper mother to him. I adore him to bits.

“My mother f****d off to England so all I have left is Damien and my partner in my life.

“The thought that I still have them makes life worth going on.

“I love being a mother, knowing I gave the gift of life.”

She also spoke of her life in prison.

Charlotte said: “I get treated different than the other lifers in here. I am starting an Open University course soon.

“I go to school every day to pass my time in hear (sic). Life in prison is quit [quite] boring.

“I goes up to the library to my great friend Catern Neven [Catherine Nevin].

“She does my hair and makeup. She can be a devious c**t starting fights with other inmates and starten rumers [starting rumours].”

Nevin was jailed for life in April 2000 for murdering her publican husband of 20 years Tom.

The conviction at the Central Criminal Court came after a 42-day trial and five days’ deliberation by the jury.

The Mulhalls will forever be associated with one of the most gruesome murders in Irish history.

Charlotte and sister Linda killed Mr Noor before dismembering his body in their mother’s inner city home and dumping the remains in a canal.

Charlotte had stabbed him 20 times with a kitchen knife while Linda admitted hitting him a “good few times” on the head with a claw hammer.

His head and penis have never been found. In the letters, Charlotte also reveals how her mother Kathleen caused havoc in the jail while serving her sentence for impeding the investigation into Mr Noor’s death.

She added: “She use [used] to terfie [terrify] the other inmates and start fights on them in the prison.”

And And Charlotte said she hates the grim “Scissor Sister” nickname given to her following her trial.

She added: “I hate being called the Scissor Sister, it makes me out to be a monster.”

As revealed in our sister paper the Irish Sunday Mirror yesterday, Charlotte writes candidly about the night of the murder, saying: “It went out of control.”

She also claims sister Linda deserved to take more of the blame and that she alone knows where Mr Noor’s head is buried.

Charlotte writes: “I hate her so much [Linda]. She should of [have] got life not me.

“She did more than what I did that horrific night. It went a bit out of control that night.

“I believe I will never get out of prison because I don’t know where Farah’s head is. Only Linda knows that.”

Scissor Sister reveals head put in bins in Phoenix Park

Cormac Looney - Herald.ie

April 14, 2009

The final secret of the Scissors Sisters murder has been revealed.

For more than four years the Mulhall sisters have refused to say where they disposed of the head of their victim, Farah Noor.

Now Linda Mulhall has revealed the final piece of the mystery after she told fellow inmates that they emptied the fragments of Noor’s skull into bins in the Phoenix Park.

Gardai have been informed of the revelations and have launched an investigation.

Linda (31) made the grisly admission at the Dochas women’s prison in Dublin last month.

During her high profile trial, Mulhall maintained she couldn’t remember what she did with the head, which she had earlier buried, dug up and then hidden in bushes.

The Herald understands that Linda Mulhall took the decomposing head from undergrowth at Tymon Park North in Tallaght and brought it by bus to the Phoenix Park.

She told fellow inmates that, once in the park, she used a hammer to crush the skull into small pieces.

She then put some of the pieces in a plastic bag, before leaving the remainder in the original plastic bag it was first stashed in.

The two bags were then dumped in refuse bins.

The final resting place of Noor's head is now believed to in landfill.

Admission

A prison source said Mulhall made the admission shortly after her mother (53) pleaded guilty to a charge of covering up Noor's murder.

Linda Mulhall and her sister Charlotte are serving sentences for the manslaughter and murder of Noor respectively, at Richmond Cottages in Ballybough four years ago.

They killed and cut up Noor's body after a drink and drug fuelled row at their mother's home.

Noor had dated their mother for a period of time.

The prison source told the Herald: "Linda came out with the admission a few weeks ago. She said she couldn't remember at the time of the trial but that it had come back to her since.

"She went to Tallaght where she had put the head in bushes and found it.

"She then placed it in another bag and brought it back into the city. She got off and walked to the Phoenix Park.

"According to Linda, at this point she used a hammer to break up the skull, while it was still inside the bag.

"She then put half the crushed remains into a second bag, and dumped the two bags in two different bins," the source added.

The disclosure ends the four year old mystery surrounding the whereabouts of Noor's head.

The rest of his body parts were dumped in the Royal Canal after the murder, and later recovered by gardai.

However, the victim's penis has never been found.

Gruesome

The crime became one of the most gruesome murders in living memory, and earned Linda and Charlotte Mulhall the nickname the 'Scissor Sisters'.

Linda Mulhall has taken a case to the Supreme Court arguing that exceptional points of law should be considered in her case.

She is seeking to have the severity of her sentence reduced after previously losing an appeal against her manslaughter conviction.

Linda and Charlotte's mother, Karen Mulhall, will be sentenced on May 5 next, after she admitted to cleaning up the crime scene at her home after Noor was murdered there.

Scissor Sister moved to new jail after knife photos leaked

By Shane Phelan Investigative Correspondent - Independent.ie

August 22, 2008

SCISSOR Sister Charlotte Mulhall was transferred to a new jail last night as an investigation was launched into leaked photographs of her wielding a knife behind bars.

Convicted murderer Mulhall, who butchered her mother's lover with a kitchen knife, was photographed on a mobile phone holding a long blade to the neck of fellow inmate Denis Gibney.

The images, taken while the pair were apparently joking around in the kitchen of Mountjoy's Dochas Centre, have caused the Prison Service acute embarrassment.

They have also raised serious questions about the effectiveness of recent crackdowns on mobile phone possession among inmates.

Deeply unhappy

The photographs were taken some time before early July, when Gibney (40) was released after serving a sentence for possession of drugs. Prison Service officials launched an investigation last night.

The inquiry will focus on discovering who took the photographs, locating the mobile phone it was taken on, and identifying who was responsible for lapses in the supervision of Mulhall and Gibney while they worked in the prison kitchen.

"There is unusually strict supervision of inmates given jobs in the kitchen, so this will have to be looked into seriously," said an informed prison source.

If the phone used to take the picture is discovered by prison officials, the matter would then be turned over to the gardai.

Possession of a mobile phone in prison is an offence punishable by up to five years in jail. However, the maximum penalty the courts have imposed to date is six months.

Officials hope that Mulhall (26), who has also lost a number of privileges as a result of the incident, will cooperate with the probe. They expect that she will be deeply unhappy at being moved from the Dochas Centre as she will be separated from her sister Linda (32) and mother Kathleen (52), who are both incarcerated there.

"She is very close to her mother and sister and won't like being transferred one bit. She may be offered a swift return to the Dochas if she cooperates with the investigation," the prison source said.

Mulhall became one of the country's most notorious prisoners after she was sentenced to life in jail for the murder of her mother's boyfriend, Kenyan man Fareh Swaleh Noor, whose body she decapitated.

Mulhall sister sentenced to life

BreakingNews.ie

December 4, 2006

Dublin woman, Charlotte Mulhall, who bludgeoned her mother’s African boyfriend to death and cut up his body, was today jailed for life.

Ms Mulhall and her sister Linda Mulhall, who was sentenced to 15 years for manslaughter, have been found guilty of killing Farah Swali Noor on March 20, 2005, after a drinking session at their mother’s home in Summerhill.

They chopped up the 38-year-old’s body, before dumping his headless remains in the Royal Canal at Ballybough.

The victim’s head and penis have never been found.

Sentencing the women at Dublin Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Paul Carney said the case was the most grotesque of killings that had occurred within his professional lifetime.

Following their trial in October, Charlotte Mulhall (aged 24), of Kilclare Heights, Tallaght, was found guilty of murdering the Kenyan.

Linda Mulhall (aged 31), of the same address, was found guilty of manslaughter. The mother of four cried in court as she was sentenced today.

The jury, which took 18 hours over four days of deliberation to reach its decision, had accepted her defence of provocation.

The court heard on the day of the brutal killing Linda, Charlotte, their mother Kathleen Mulhall and her partner Mr Noor had been drinking heavily in the city centre.

Linda told gardaí that back in their mother’s flat, the women took ecstasy with Mrs Mulhall crushing a tablet into the victim’s drink so they were all on the same "buzz".

Farah is said to have made a pass at Linda, but telling him to get his hands off her sister Charlotte picked up a Stanley blade and cut his throat.

Linda admitted hitting the victim a lot of times over the head with a hammer.

The pair dragged his body into the bathroom of her mother’s flat and spent hours cutting it up with a bread knife and hammer.

He suffered more than 20 stab wounds to his body.

Mr Noor’s torso and limbs were spotted by passers-by in the canal 10 days later.

The severed head was taken in a separate bag on the bus to Tallaght where it was buried and reburied in a number of locations. It has never been recovered.

Gardaí are still trying to locate Mrs Mulhall, who is believed to have left the jurisdiction. Their father, John Mulhall, committed suicide last December, but he is not believed to have been involved in the killing.

The victim, who arrived in Ireland in December 1996 had claimed to be a Somalian called Sheilila Salim. He was granted citizenship in March 1999 on grounds he became the father of an Irish born child.

Gardaí traced his identity through media appeals and located his last address to Mrs Mulhall’s home at Richmond Cottages, Ballybough.

Despite extensive cleaning by the women, a forensic examination found traces of Mr Noor’s blood which were consistent with him dying a violent death.

The sisters and their parents were arrested in August last year, but denied any knowledge of the killing.

Just weeks later Linda contacted investigating officers admitting her involvement.

Her legal team argued that she was paramount in solving the crime, and requested a minimal sentence so she could care for her four children, who are all still at school.

“I do not regard her as a good mother being particularly persuasively, if she was a good mother of four children she would not be getting herself into a situation like that,” said Mr Justice Carney.

He argued that Linda, a heroin addict, had initially tried to halt the trial by refusing to take Methadone.

The court heard after the killing, Linda turned to drugs and alcohol, had slashed her arms, and spent over a week in a psychiatric hospital prior to court proceedings.

Last month Charlotte Mulhall, the mother of an eight-month-old baby, was convicted of prostitution.

Both women also had a history of drug and alcohol abuse.

The state had earlier appealed for sentencing to be adjourned as efforts were been made for the victim’s mother to attend the hearing. Legal teams for defence also argued that psychiatric and probation reports were not yet ready.

Dismissing the appeal, the judge refused leave to appeal both sentences. Their jail terms date back to September this year when both were remanded in custody.

Imposing the mandatory life sentence on the younger sister, Mr Justice Carney said: “This is the most grotesque of killings that has occurred within my professional lifetime.”

He told Linda that he had the power to also impose a life sentence, but as the jury had allowed a defence of provocation he had to respect that.

Woman tells canal body murder trial of rape hell

Eleanor Burnhill - Independent.ie

October 24, 2006

THE former partner of a Kenyan man, whose dismembered and headless body was pulled from the Royal Canal, has claimed he raped her on an almost daily basis and she feared he might kill her.

She said he had also been interviewed as a suspect in an unsolved murder case in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

The woman, whom counsel requested the media not to name to protect her privacy, was giving evidence in the trial of sisters Charlotte Mulhall (23) and Linda (31), from Kilcare Gardens in Tallaght, who have both pleaded not guilty to the murder of a man known as Farah Swaleh Noor (also known as Sheilila Salim) at Richmond Cottages, Ballybough, on March 20 last year.

Passers-by saw his arms and legs floating in the Royal Canal 10 days after the alleged murder.

The witness said she met Mr Noor on the day of her 16th birthday and had since had a son by him.

The now married mother-of-three said he was a "lovely man" at first, but changed when he had a drink on him.

She also agreed with George Birmingham SC, prosecuting, that the deceased carried knives. She said he had pulled her hair and hit her in the head.

"He abused me, so I just got up and left him," she told the jury.

She said she had taken out a protection order against him and had secured full custody of their child.

He was a 'lovely man' at first, but changed when he had a drink on him

Under cross-examination the witness detailed more of the abuse she claimed she suffered at the hands of the deceased, and agreed she had fears that her son was being abused by him.

She agreed she had been raped on numerous occasions and had had "very brutal sex" with the deceased at any time and anywhere he had wanted it.

She said the mother of the two accused, Kathleen Mulhall, had contacted her on a number of occasions, making complaints about Mr Noor and seeking her advice. She suggested she should leave him.

She also agreed she had called the gardai on a number of occasions and had told them that Mr Noor was aggressive with a short temper and was "someone who'd fight or get into rows at the drop of a hat".

In relation to her son, she said that on one occasion he had come home from an access visit with Mr Noor with what appeared to be cigarette burns on him.

This was not confirmed by the hospital, but she said Mr Noor would burn himself with cigarettes to "relieve the pain, like stress, or anything he was going through - missing his family and all that".

If somebody in his family had died, she said he would make a mark to remember them by.

On another occasion, she said she became concerned her son was overly sexualised and acting in a sexual way, which was not something she had talked about with him.

She agreed she had also had a row with Mr Noor on a day out in Sandycove, Co Dublin, where he was carrying a knife. After the row she said he disappeared and had claimed he was drinking somewhere, but she then learned this wasn't true.

He had also made comments to friends of hers about a young woman being killed in Dun Laoghaire and had been questioned in relation to that murder.

However, in earlier evidence gardai said they had eliminated him from their inquiries.

The witness said Mr Noor would drink a full bottle of vodka and would accuse her of cheating on him, before having a two-way conversation with himself in the mirror.

She told the court she feared that "one day he might kill me".

Scientist Claire Timms said she had carried out a toxicology test on a blood sample taken from a man later identified as Farah Swaleh Noor in July last year. She said the test revealed the presence of ecstasy or MDMA at a level of 0.14 micrograms per millilitre.

The Central Criminal Court trial has reached its closing stages. The jury is expected to consider its verdict tomorrow after closing speeches and a charge from Mr Justice Paul Carney.

Mulhall sister admits she hit victim with hammer

BreakingNews.ie

October 18, 2006

One of two Dublin sisters accused of murdering an African man who’s headless and dismembered body was found in the Royal Canal, told gardaí how she hit him with a hammer after her sister cut his throat with a Stanley blade, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Linda Mulhall (aged 31) also told gardaí how she and her sister dragged the body into the bathroom of her mother’s flat and spent a few hours cutting it up with a bread knife and hammer.

She said it took them several trips to dispose of the body parts in the canal, whilst the severed head was taken in a separate bag on the bus to Tallaght.

There she said she put the head in her son's school bag and kissed the bag before saying a prayer.

Along with her sister Charlotte (aged 23) she denies murdering Mr Farah Swaleh Noor on March 20th 2005 at her mother’s flat in Ballybough. Both women are from Kilcare Gardens in Tallaght.

Detective Inspector Christopher Mangan told Mr George Birmingham SC, prosecuting, that he had taken a voluntary statement from Linda Mulhall at her house in Tallaght in August last year.

He said she told him that around mid-March her mother Kathleen, who was dating Mr Noor, rang her sister Charlotte and the two of them went to meet her on O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre. She said her mother and Farah were holding hands and looked very happy.

Farah bought vodka from a shop and her mother bought coke and they drank as they walked around the city before stopping on the Boardwalk where she said her, Charlotte and her mother took ecstasy tablets.

On their way back to her mother’s flat at Richmond Cottages in Ballybough, where the murder is alleged to have taken place, she said her mother and Farah were arguing.

Back at the flat Linda said she was sitting on her sister Charlotte’s lap, listening to a CD when Farah came in and put his arm around her waist.

She said: “He pulled me close to him and said something into my ear I did not understand but I know it was dirty, dirty. It caused me to shiver.” She said he then said something about them being “creatures of the night” and she asked her mother “What does he mean?”

"She said her mother had earlier crushed up an ecstasy tablet and put it into the deceased’s drink as “she wanted Farah to have E as me and Charlie were in good humour'.

"he said Farah was still holding her tightly.

Her mother asked: “What the f*** are you doing?”

She said “Farah kept saying you’re so like your mammy".

In the statement Linda described there being a Stanley blade on the counter. She said Charlotte was telling Farah to get his hands off her and her sister picked up the blade and cut his throat.

She said Farah had been making threatening gestures at her mother, he staggered through the bedroom door and hit his head on a bunk bed. “I picked up a hammer and hit him on the head loads of times, a good few times and Charlotte stabbed him.”

She said when Charlotte told their mother Farah was dead, they were all screaming and her mother shouted “get him out".

She said the deceased was then dragged into the bathroom by the legs where “Me and Charlotte chopped him up. It was Charlotte’s idea".

She said she had been in the shower while her sister sat on a toilet seat. “Charlotte started sawing his legs with the knife.”

She said it was a rugged blade and Charlotte became tired. “The smell was… it wouldn’t go away. I think about it every night,” she told gardaí.

She said she had used a hammer to hit his legs a number of times and they had put towels over his legs to stop the blood gushing out. She said they had taken turns doing both jobs and: “It took us a few hours to do it.”

She also described cutting his penis off and said she had thrown this in the canal along with the rest of the body, which was put into black plastic bags and then sports bags before being thrown into the canal.

She said she had carried the light bits, whilst Charlotte had carried the heavier ones.

“We walked down to the canal a few times, it took a few times,” she said. She had decided not to throw the head in so he would not be identified.

She said the head had been brought by bus to Tallaght where they walked through the Square shopping centre to Tynan Park North. They walked around for ages there, before Charlotte dug a hole with a knife in which to bury the head.

She said her mother had thrown the knives and a hammer into some water nearby. However over the next few days Linda allegedly told gardaí that something kept telling her to go back to the park.

She said she removed the head and put it into a plastic bag, which she hid in bushes. She then used her son’s school bag to transfer the head to another field in Tallaght where she said “kissed the bag and told Farah I was sorry.”

She said she stayed in the field for a long time, drinking a litre bottle of vodka. She hit the head with another hammer she had brought with her to try to break it up and said a prayer before burning the plastic bag and the school bag.

The head and penis of the body have never been found. At the conclusion of her statement, which was read to the court, Det Insp Mangan agreed she had said: “It’s not my fault it happened. I’m sorry. If I could turn back time I would.”

Under cross-examination from Mr Brendan Grehan SC, for Linda Mulhall, Det. Insp. Mangan agreed gardaí had been making limited progress in the case until his client contacted them. He agreed there were many occasions when she had been crying and emotional during the taking of the statements, and that during the course of his dealings with her she seemed a very different person to the kind of person who could be involved in an offence like this.

He said the offence appeared to have had a traumatic effect on her and she had described it as “driving her mental.”

She had since turned to alcohol and had slashed her arms as well as spending over a week in a psychiatric hospital.

Her father John Mulhall had taken his own life just before Christmas last year whilst her mother has since disappeared.

Det Insp Mangan said his inquiries into the background of Mr Noor had shown he was not a Somalian who had witnessed the death of his wife there, but a Kenyan who’s family were still alive.

He had four previous convictions for offences including intoxication, threatening and abusive behaviour and assault.

Two other women had had children by him and both described having being raped by him.

He was also alleged to have assaulted Kathleen Mulhall. The witness said: “From our inquiries we certainly established he would have carried knives on occasions and drunk excessively as well.”

However he had been eliminated as a suspect in a murder case after being found with a knife in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

During the trial yesterday Mr Justice Paul Carney told the jury that Linda Mulhall’s statement was only admissible in relation to her case, and was not admissible as evidence against her sister Charlotte. The trial, before a jury of six men and six women continues tomorrow.