The Torso in the Canal (17 page)

Acknowledgements

This book is an account of the untimely killing and dismemberment of Farah Swaleh Noor, a Kenyan immigrant whose dismembered remains were found in the Royal Canal in north central Dublin, in March 2005.

The victim had been stabbed to death inside a flat at Richmond Cottages, where his body was then dismembered in a brutal fashion.

Various parts of his body were dumped in the canal, while his head was taken away and hidden in a public park, and then moved to another location, from where it vanished.

The killing gripped Ireland for obvious reasons. There was an initial suspicion that Noor was the victim of a ritual sacrifice.

When it emerged that two sisters from a working class estate in Dublin—Charlotte and Linda Mulhall—were behind the killing, I became interested in the story.

What follows is an account of the killing, or specifically the killers’ recollections of the tragic events. It is worth noting that no one will ever know the full truth about what happened; all the statements gathered by the detectives tasked with establishing the truth contradict each other.

The two participants in the killing were drunk and had taken drugs on the night; therefore their recollections cannot be fully relied upon.

In the course of writing this book, I interviewed as many people as I could to establish what had happened. I also took information from documents prepared for the sisters’ trials. In everyone I approached, I found a willingness to help. In this regard, I offer my eternal thanks to the detective team at Mountjoy, Fitzgibbon and Store Street Garda Stations, who were tasked with investigating Noor’s killing. Their willingness to reveal the specifics about the case is not forgotten.

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to those who knew Charlotte and Linda Mulhall, and agreed to share their experiences with me. Members of the sisters’ extended family, their neighbours, and some friends gave me an insight into the women’s personalities, their social back-grounds and their family history. Some of this information has not been published to protect the privacy of various people.

I am also indebted to Noor’s former partner, who revealed the intimate details of the time she spent with him. The harrowing accounts of the beatings and attacks she suffered at his hands could not have been easy to recall. I thank her profusely for assisting me in the research of this book.

A number of legal sources also provided an insight into the mechanics of the trial; their advice was much appreciated.

Much of what follows was taken from evidence gathered by gardaí and used by the Director of Public Prosecutions in the trial of Linda and Charlotte Mulhall heard before the Central Criminal Court. I have used information contained in the book of evidence to tell the story. I thank everyone who passed me these documents for their assistance.

On a personal note, I would like to thank my immediate friends, family and colleagues. Among them Fr Seamus Ahearne of Finglas; Todd O’Loughlin, Ian O’Reilly of the BBC
World Affairs Unit; John
Kealey, Des Gibson, Paul Sheridan and Michael O’Toole of
The Star;
Seán Curtain of P
ress 22,
and my colleagues at the Su
nday Times
, particularly my editor Frank Fitzgibbon, John Burns and Liam Clarke.

There are others in An Garda Síochána, whom I consider friends but cannot individually name for confidentiality reasons, but their help, and above all friendship, is never forgotten and is much valued.

In this regard, I would also like to posthumously thank Kevin Stratford, an officer who tragically died last year after an all too short battle with cancer. Kevin was very much an inspiration to anyone who had ever met him; he is still sadly missed by his family, friends and colleagues. I was privileged to have known him.

Thanks are also due to the staff at Maverick House Publishers; Adam Hyland, Gert Ackermann, Sarah Ormston and Pornchai Sereemongkonpol; those at Gill Hess, who ensured the project ran smoothly, and Gerry Kelly at ColourBooks Ltd, for moving mountains.

I would also to thank Claire Foley at William Fry Solicitors for her help in preparing the manuscript for publication.

Finally I would like to thank Jean Harrington for her time and effort in helping to write, edit and work on the manuscript. Without her help, this book would never have been published.

John Mooney

January 2007

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