The Irish Scissor Sisters (43 page)

spent months investigating the gruesome murder of Farah Swaleh Noor have often wondered what drove two women, from a seemingly normal background, to commit a killing of such horror. It is impossible to say.

Linda and Charlotte Mulhall both attended St Aidan’s Community College in Tallaght but dropped out before sitting their Leaving Certificate. They were not involved in crime and only had one or two minor convictions. Kilclare Gardens, in Jobstown, is regarded as quite an upmarket council estate and most of its residents have lived there for decades. It is not blighted by drugs or terrorised by joy riders like some other council estates in Tallaght.

The Mulhalls’ neighbours were all shocked when they heard that the girls had managed to get themselves into so much trouble. The family were not whiter than white and had caused a bit of trouble around the estate, but there was nothing to suggest that two killers were growing-up in Number 31. John Mulhall was a hardworking man who worked long hours to look after his family.

Life for the Mulhalls seemed to fall apart, however, when Kathleen met Farah Swaleh Noor and walked out on her husband. It was then that Charlotte started to drift into prostitution and she and Linda turned to drink and drugs to fill the emotional vacuum in their lives – Charlotte because of her mother deserting her, and Linda as a result of her partner physically abusing her children. The Mulhalls were a family that the Celtic Tiger forgot. Farah Swaleh Noor came to Ireland hoping to experience the benefits of Ireland’s burgeoning economy but he didn’t realise that thousands of Irish people were being bypassed by the economic boom. Linda and Charlotte never had jobs and were brought up claiming social welfare payments. They got extra cash from wherever they could find it, either from robbing or, in Charlotte’s case, selling herself for sex. The system let these two women down somewhere along the way.

Out of all the Mulhalls, gardaí had most sympathy for Linda and felt sorry that she had been dragged into a situation that had spiralled out of control. In the book of evidence, forwarded to the DPP by Detective Inspector Christy Mangan, she is described as being ‘truthful and sincere’ in all her dealings with gardaí after she first admitted her role in the murder: ‘She became emotional and upset when she described the details of the killing. At no stage did she retract anything of what she said and Detective Inspector Mangan and Sergeant Hickey could see that despite the abomination of what she had confessed to, she was relieved to have done so and she expressed regret for having done it. I believe that the injuries she inflicted on herself are an indication of Linda Mulhall’s state of mind in the aftermath of the killing and of her inability to live with what she did. I believe she is fully prepared to face the consequences of her actions.’

Charlotte Mulhall, although extremely reluctant to admit to her involvement, was also truthful once she finally confessed that she had murdered Farah Swaleh Noor. If she had not given the statement conceding her involvement in the crime, it is very doubtful if gardaí would ever have had enough evidence to charge her with the murder. She would not have been charged on the word of Linda alone and there was no real forensic evidence against her. It was Charlotte’s eventual honesty that ensured that she will not walk the streets as a free woman for a very long time.

In June 2007 Linda Mulhall again appeared before Dublin District Court. She left with a further nine-month jail term after evidence was heard that the convicted killer tried to kick in the sitting room door at the home of her former love rival, Mary Behan. ‘Don’t get smart with me; I’m Linda Mulhall,’ Behan was warned.

Linda was charged with criminal damage and trespass after forcing her way into Mary Behan’s home. The father of three of Linda’s children, Mark Farrelly, had begun an affair with Behan while Linda was eight months pregnant with her youngest child. The ugly incident at Behan’s home happened on 13 May 2006 while Mulhall was on bail, charged with the murder of Farah Swaleh Noor. Mary Behan alleged that Mulhall threatened to petrol-bomb her house and kill her children and said she had to leave her home in Drimnagh following the incident. Behan’s twelve-year-old is now afraid to go upstairs alone and her ten-year-old still needs counselling.

Linda Mulhall’s two sons were celebrating their Confirmation when their mother brought them to Farrelly’s home at Benmadigan Road to see their father. Mulhall knocked on the door, looking for her former partner, but Mary Behan answered and told her to go away. Behan claims that Linda became aggressive and forced her way into the house while Behan barricaded herself into the living room to protect her children. Linda Mulhall kicked the door off its hinges and shouted abuse but she eventually left.

The gardaí were called and Linda was later arrested. She told Garda Niall Kenna that she knew Behan because: ‘She had an affair with my kids’ father,’ but claimed, ‘I wasn’t even inside that bloody house.’ Giving evidence in court, Linda said, ‘I thought Mark would have been proud to see his sons on their Confirmation day, because he wasn’t paying child support or anything.’ She denied trespassing at Farrelly and Behan’s council house and claimed, ‘I certainly didn’t kick no door in. It was my kids’ special day. I wasn’t going to ruin it.’ Linda admitted that there was bitterness between her and Behan and said, ‘He was my fiancé and Mary Behan went and had an affair with him. When I was pregnant he had an affair, but I’m over that a long time.’

The affair between Behan and Farrelly began in 1999 and Linda and Charlotte Mulhall had previously attacked Mary Behan’s home. On 27 March 2003 the sisters went to the house and abused Mary Behan while Charlotte threw cans at the house, breaking a window. Charlotte was subsequently charged with criminal damage and given the benefit of the Probation Act, on 2 October 2005. Linda was interviewed but never charged. She wasn’t so lucky the second time around, though. Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick imposed six months for the criminal damage and nine months for trespass. He said Mulhall’s evidence was contrived and, after hearing of her appeal against her manslaughter conviction, there was a possibility she could be free before the new sentence expired. The judge agreed to a defence request not to make the sentences consecutive.

Later that year Linda had what sources described as a mini breakdown in prison after the model head she was using for hairdressing training was stolen by another inmate. Linda had been training to be a hairdresser at the Dóchas Centre for the previous year and was assigned her own model head to practise on. She went to class one day in December and discovered the head had been stolen. According to prison staff, when she saw the head was gone she fell to her knees and began crying uncontrollably, saying that the lost head had brought back the image of Farah Noor. She was comforted by staff and other inmates and was offered counselling to help her get over her ordeal. The head eventually turned up but the person who stole it was never identified. It is thought that the theft was a joke that went wrong. One source who witnessed the incident said: ‘Linda went to hairdressing class after lunch as usual and when she saw that the head was gone she just lost it and fell to the floor, roaring crying. She wouldn’t stop and staff were genuinely concerned for her mental health. Somebody probably took the head as a bit of a laugh, but after what happened, nobody would own up to it. Linda is a tough nut and she didn’t find it funny, so you can’t really blame the joker for keeping quiet. You do not want to get on the two girls’ bad sides.’

While Linda was battling her inner demons, Charlotte was drafted in as a waitress to serve at the official Christmas lunch in the Dóchas Centre. The head of the Irish Prison Service, Brian Purcell, hosted his annual Christmas lunch in the jail for senior staff and guests, and inmates traditionally serve the food. Charlotte was chosen to be part of the waitressing team, which was a sought-after job only given to inmates who were trusted. People who attended the luncheon said she did a very good job and was very polite. You would never have known that she was one of Ireland’s most notorious murderers.

There can be little doubt that Farah Swaleh Noor was a nasty piece of work and some would say that he had what happened coming to him because of his own violence towards women. The garda book of evidence describes Noor as ‘a highly volatile and aggressive individual and this condition was exacerbated by his excessive drinking’. He certainly carried knives and was prepared to use weapons during violent drunken outbursts. In the months before his murder, Farah Noor was falling further and further into a murky existence of drink and violence. It is quite possible that he could have murdered some poor unfortunate were he not killed himself.

Even though he was an undesirable individual, the fact remains that Farah Noor left a heartbroken family behind him in Kenya. Detective Sergeant Gerry McDonnell was responsible for liaising with Farah’s mother, wife and family in Mombasa. He became close to them and contacted Farah’s mother, Somoe Bakari Shigoo in January 2006 when the coroner released Farah’s body, giving permission for burial. As his family did not have a lot of money they couldn’t afford to repatriate his body to Kenya and Det Sgt McDonnell requested permission from Somoe to have Farah laid to rest in Ireland.

On 1 February 2006 the detective received a fax from Mombasa.

It was headed: ‘My consent so that my son Sheilila Swaleh/Farah Swaleh is buried’ and read:

On 10 March 2006 the body of thirty-nine-year-old Farah Swaleh Noor was taken to Glasnevin Cemetery for burial. About forty people gathered to take part in a traditional Muslim ceremony to remember the dead Kenyan. A prayer service took place in Stafford’s funeral home, before a hearse transported his remains to Glasnevin, where he was buried in a plot paid for by the taxpayer. The mourners filled the plot with earth by hand, while branches from yew trees in the cemetery were placed around the grave. The ceremony took nearly two hours and Muslim clerics said prayers as large stones were placed at the foot of the grave. The service ended as the top of the plot was covered with a mound of soil.

In September 2007 this author tracked down Farah Noor’s family to their dilapidated home in Mombasa in Kenya, where Noor’s wife, Husna Mohamed Said, broke her silence and revealed that Noor’s daughter collapsed and died soon after learning that her father had been murdered in Ireland. Husna said her family’s life had been torn apart and that she had considered suicide because of what happened to her estranged husband. The thirty-six-year-old was living in severe financial hardship and had not been contacted by the Irish authorities about financial compensation, following Noor’s murder.