The Irish Scissor Sisters (23 page)

Farah even forced her to phone his ex-girlfriend Paula, who was pregnant with somebody else’s child, in order to make her jealous. Kathleen had to pretend she was expecting twins. A few weeks later she had to ring Paula again to say that she’d miscarried. She was regularly made to say this to people.

Charlotte also knew all about her mam’s suffering at the hands of Farah. She told gardaí that the two got on well most of the time but that he hit her and that friends of Kathleen in Cork had told her this as well. She saw them have an argument once when Farah was drunk. He pushed her mother and told her to shut up. Charlotte said he was an alcoholic and was always drinking: ‘He got very aggressive when he drank but when he was sober he was very quiet.’ Charlotte said that Farah always carried a knife with him in his jacket pocket or trousers. He said it was to sort Irish people out because they were all racist.

Kathleen Mulhall was not the only person to bear the brunt of Farah Swaleh Noor’s temper. He would lose the rag at the drop of a hat and take his anger out on whoever was closest. Although he was a bully who liked to exert power over women, Noor was also quite cowardly and could not back up his violent threats. He regularly got severe beatings or ran away from rows he’d instigated. Charlotte told detectives that she saw him start a fight with an Irishman called John Paul when he was living in Cork. Farah abused the man and pulled three knives from his pocket, threatening to stab him, but John Paul still ‘battered’ him, according to Charlotte.

Other people who knew Farah and Kathleen in Cork also gave statements detailing their violent relationship. Barry Sheehan, who was the couple’s landlord at 158 Lower Glanmire Road, told gardaí that Kathleen had claimed that Farah had ‘kicked the baby out of her’ when she was pregnant. Sheehan said that the dead man was always very abusive towards Kathleen but ‘she could give as good as she got’. He did not remember Farah as a good man and said he abused everyone. He also said he was extremely violent when drinking but ‘when he was sober he was the nicest fella in the world, which wasn’t often’.

Kathleen also told Michael Mulrey, who lived underneath her in the same house, that she was pregnant. Mulrey believed her and found Farah Noor quite intimidating, with a stare that unnerved him. He described one incident to gardaí where Farah became very aggressive towards him. Mulrey was drinking in his local, the KLN, when Farah wanted to shake his hand as he was leaving. Michael Mulrey was getting hospital treatment at the time and didn’t want to shake Noor’s hand because ‘he’d been coughing and spluttering all night into his hands’ and he ‘couldn’t afford to catch anything’. Noor became very angry at this snub and shouted at Mulrey, ‘It’s because I’m black.’ Mulrey told him that the only person that had an issue with the colour of his skin was Noor himself.

Mulrey told gardaí: ‘I didn’t like Farah and I never made any bones about that. I thought he had a violent streak. He had these mad bulging eyes and if he was staring at you he could be very intimidating and he had this really deep voice. He was very aggressive when he had drink on him.’

Maureen Moran was Kathleen and Farah’s landlord when they lived at 105 Lower Glanmire Road for five weeks. Moran said that when she collected the rent Kathleen was covered in bruises and told her that her boyfriend had beaten her up.

Another of the couple’s landlords, Michael Herlihy, who owns 13 Quaker Road, said that Noor once pulled out a butcher’s knife and threatened to cut his [Herlihy’s] head clean off him if Herlihy ever came back to the house to look for rent. Herlihy, who owns a shop, regularly saw Kathleen Mulhall with black eyes and other bruises.

Another man, John O’Toole, saw bruises on Kathleen’s face when she moved into his house and he got the impression that her partner was responsible. He said she was very nervous and seemed afraid that this man would come looking for her.

Noor had regularly come to the attention of gardaí before his death and had amassed four previous convictions but never spent a night in jail. Although he was lucky to have less than a handful of convictions Farah was well known to gardaí, whether he was living in Dublin or Cork. They were frequently called out to deal with incidents involving him or Kathleen drinking excessively and were also well used to responding to domestic incidents.

Noor appears on the garda PULSE crime recording system twelve times. He is named as a missing person from Tallaght on a PULSE incident report recorded on 30 March 2005, the day his body was found. A second entry that day lists him as the ‘injured party’ in a murder. The final entry was made on 12 July 2005, when he is described as a ‘found person’ in response to the previous missing persons’ report, which was probably made in error. His other appearances before his demise show Farah Swaleh Noor to be a man very fond of drink but with a tendency to get on the wrong side of the law when he was under the influence.

He first came to the gardaí’s attention on 2 December 2000 following an ugly incident in Dublin. A bus driver was working on his normal Tallaght route, when he stopped to pick up two African men on the Harold’s Cross Road, near Rathmines. The pair refused to pay the proper fare and the driver wouldn’t allow them board the bus unless they had the full amount. The two men, Farah Swaleh Noor and a friend of his, became very abusive to the driver. They started cursing and shouting at him, displaying aggressive behaviour. The driver pleaded with them to calm down but they only got angrier and he had no choice but to contact the guards from his radio. A female garda from Rathmines Station attended the scene and had a word with the two offenders. She told them to calm down and go home or they would be arrested. Despite being warned by the garda, Farah Noor did not calm down and became far more agitated. He started shouting aggressively at the garda, the bus driver and members of the public. The officer called for back-up because the situation was getting more serious and a male colleague from the same station arrived minutes later. Noor then pushed and assaulted the female officer, before attacking her colleague. Yet more gardaí were summoned to the scene as Noor and his pal were out of control at this stage. The two men were threatening to attack innocent passers-by. A struggle ensued and the gardaí found it difficult to handcuff the two men, who were shouting and cursing at them in English and a foreign language. They were both eventually arrested on suspicion of assaulting a garda, obstruction of an officer and resisting arrest and were taken to Rathmines Garda Station, still mouthing abuse. Both men were bailed and were summonsed to appear before Dublin District Court on 17 September 2001. Noor was charged with assault contrary to the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act. He was convicted and sentenced to three months in jail but that was suspended. He was bound to keep the peace for twelve months and fined €190.46.

Less than a year after his first conviction, Noor was again in trouble. Gardaí Ian Pemberton and John Farmer from Kill of the Grange Station in South Dublin responded to a domestic incident in Dun Laoghaire at 2.16 a.m. on 18 August 2002. A member of the public had made a complaint that an African man with a knife was threatening a female. They arrived at the scene and observed a man they later knew to be Farah Swaleh Noor drop a knife behind a wall, close to a house. Noor had spent the day drinking and the gardaí thought he was very drunk but he denied that the knife was his. Farah claimed he had never to have seen it before. He was arrested and taken to the station where an investigation into the incident was launched. He was interviewed on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon but still continued to maintain his innocence. Nobody was prepared to come forward and say they had seen the Kenyan with the knife in his hands so there was insufficient evidence to charge him. He was released and, although gardaí continued to investigate, he was never prosecuted. Had somebody been willing to finger Noor he could easily have found himself in jail for a minimum of three months because he was still bound to keep the peace from the incident the previous September and his sentence would likely have been re-imposed.

When Farah moved to Cork with Kathleen in September 2002 he was in the city for a matter of just weeks before the demon drink got him noticed again. On 30 November Garda Garreth S. Kingston, who is attached to Anglesea Street Garda Station, was out on mobile patrol at 11 p.m. when he happened upon Noor in a very drunken state on North Gate Bridge. He spoke to Noor, who confirmed that he had been drinking heavily for most of the day. He was not causing anyone hassle so the garda cautioned the Kenyan and ordered him to go back to his flat, which he gave as being at 43 Heatherview Avenue.

Noor kept out of trouble until 4 March 2003, when he appeared before a judge at Cork City Court charged with intoxication in a public place contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act (Public Order) 2004. This incident had happened at 1 a.m. on 20 February, when a garda spotted Farah in the middle of busy Leitrim Street without any top on. Garda Maurice Hickey issued a summons to Noor in the post and he appeared in person in court and pleaded guilty. He was fined €75.

On 3 November 2003 Farah Noor phoned gardaí at McCurtain Street station at 6.15 p.m. about an incident that was alleged to have taken place on the Lower Glanmire Road. Noor claimed that he was walking down the road with Kathleen when two men in their early twenties, one wearing a black jacket and black trousers, the other dressed in a white jacket and white trousers, attacked him out of the blue, punching him in the face. Kathleen was a witness to the supposed assault but neither Farah nor his partner could give a good description of what these men looked like. They could only say that they were very drunk and outside Mama Mia’s restaurant when it happened. Garda Caroline O’Neill drove the patrol car around the area searching for these men but failed to find any trace. She noted that Kathleen and Farah had drink consumed. Gardaí went to Noor’s flat at 13 Quaker Road two weeks later and asked if he wanted to make an official complaint about this alleged assault. The Kenyan had sobered up at this stage and declined but thanked the guards for calling round.

After almost two years in Cork, Farah and Kathleen moved back to Dublin on 14 September 2004. They stayed in the Mountainview B&B in Firhouse while they looked for somewhere more permanent.

On 10 October Kathleen went to the manager of the B&B and confided that she wanted to leave because Farah was very violent towards her, jealous and possessive. She said she was afraid to leave him because he would come and find her wherever she went. The Health Board takes such complaints very seriously and Kathleen was moved to Lismore B&B in Drumcondra. The new accommodation was arranged for Kathleen on the understanding that she would not be in contact with Noor. Arrangements were also made for them to collect their Social Welfare money independently. As a result of the split, they were both paid unemployment benefits separately, each getting €138.80 a week. It later transpired that when Kathleen had complained about being in fear of the brutish Farah, she did it out of a desire to con more money out of the Social Welfare. The couple had most likely concocted the story because they knew that living apart they would be better off to the tune of €43.60 a week.

The couple kept seeing each other and were still very much together. Farah’s violent habits, however, did not change. Gardaí Mark Dunlea, Timothy McCarthy and John O’Connell from Rathfarnham Garda Station were on patrol in a marked garda car at about 10 p.m. on 24 October, when they saw an African man repeatedly hitting a female who looked to be in her late forties. They immediately stopped the car at the Old Bawn Road, in Tallaght, and pulled the African away from the woman. The man was very drunk and told the gardaí his name was Farah Swaleh Noor. He gave his address as the Mountainview B&B, Firhouse. He was handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of assault and was taken to Rathfarnham Station. The female victim was Kathleen Mulhall and she wasn’t happy that her boyfriend was being taken away in a squad car. She told the guards that he was all right and to let him go. She refused to cooperate and make a statement against Farah and he was released without charge.

Noor was abusive and violent towards Kathleen Mulhall beyond any shadow of a doubt but she always stayed with him for some reason. While she was living in Drumcondra, Farah had another of his regular run-ins with authority. He was walking on the Upper Drumcondra Road at around 7.45 p.m. on 20 November 2004, after a day’s heavy boozing. He opened up his trousers and started to urinate against a car. A passer-by challenged him and asked Farah what the hell he was doing. The decent citizen was sixty-one-years old but that didn’t stop the alcoholic Noor shouting obscenities at him. The man was from Ballymun and told Noor he had no business urinating on the street and said he should be ashamed of himself. The Kenyan was brave with lots of drink on board and walked up to the man and punched him in the face. Two young men, aged twenty and twenty-one, were also out walking and witnessed the assault and came to the good Samaritan’s aid. They pulled Noor off him and held him down while phoning the guards from a mobile phone. Garda Anthony McCabe from Whitehall Station responded to the 999 call and arrested Noor, who was shouting at the three men to let him go. He was arrested and taken to the garda station. Luckily, the sixty-one-year-old was not badly injured and was able to go home. Farah Swaleh Noor appeared before the Dublin District Court two days later, charged with intoxication in a public place and of threatening and abusive behaviour. He was convicted of both offences and the Probation Act was applied. He was bound to the peace for twelve months and fined €200.

A few months later Noor was quizzed by gardaí after another violent incident. He attacked Christian Silva in the Parnell Mooney pub on St Patrick’s night 2005, punching him in the face with a pair of nail cutters. A uniformed officer spoke to Noor outside the pub but it’s doubtful whether Farah would have been prosecuted. A witness, Michael Dunne, told gardaí that Farah wasn’t at fault. Silva had also declined to make a complaint and never contacted the guards again to make a statement.