The Irish Scissor Sisters

by Mick McCaffrey

  Judge Smyth imposed a seven-day prison sentence in default of her paying the €100 fine and agreed to a request that the fine could be paid immediately, so that the default penalty could be served as part of her life sentence. Like her sister, Charlotte’s solicitors also lodged an appeal against her murder conviction, so she would get to argue her case again in the Court of Criminal Appeal.

  Charlotte’s mind was also occupied with the future of her then eight-month-old son. She made an application to look after him in prison and this is allowed in certain circumstances. Following her conviction, the infant was taken into care by social workers. He was sent temporarily to a foster family but Charlotte was unhappy with this and was said to miss her first-born child. She was interviewed by social workers to assess her suitability for caring for a child in jail. Newborn babies are generally only permitted to be with their mothers in jail when they are being breast-fed. The child then undergoes a medical examination by a doctor when he or she is nine months old to see if this is still necessary. Charlotte was not breast-feeding her son so this didn’t apply to her. There was no medical reason why the baby should be taken away from a caring foster family and moved to an environment where he would be surrounded by murderers and drug dealers. It is very unusual to have children in a prison environment after they go beyond a maximum of twelve months and the Prison Service does not encourage the practice. A spokesperson said: ‘It is the view of the Irish Prison Service that prison is a completely inappropriate environment for infants.’ Despite this a deal was agreed at the Dolphin House Family Court in December 2006 to allow Charlotte to look after her son for a few hours each day. She was transferred to Elm House, the child-care facility within the prison that houses up to eighteen infants at any one time.

  Charlotte began seeing her son before Christmas and was said by prison staff to be a very good mother who was devoted to the baby. As a report by a senior prison officer in 2001 had found that the Dóchas Centre was riddled with drugs, she had to undergo regular drugs tests as part of the agreement and passed each one. Charlotte was apparently revelling in looking after her child each day but it lasted only until 28 May 2007, when the baby turned one.

  Both women have succumbed to the demon drink while in the Dóchas Centre. On 21 February 2007 prison officers spotted Linda and Charlotte acting suspiciously by the prison boundary walls and kept them under surveillance. Two large plastic bottles were thrown over the wall from outside the jail. Officers confiscated the bottles. It was found that they contained vodka. Both women admitted being in possession of the drink and it is believed that they were subject to internal disciplinary procedures but the results were never made public. Three weeks before the vodka incident a member of the public was caught attempting to pass alcohol to Linda and it was also confiscated by prison officers. No disciplinary action was taken but prison sources said that the officers keep a close eye on both women to make sure that they do not get their hands on either drink or drugs.

  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 claime
d, ‘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:

  Fate is very strong and as human beings we are to succumb to it. This is what befell my late dear son who really cared for me as a mother and his family. I had really cherished the idea of availing myself in Ireland so as to pay my last respect to my beloved son who was brutally murdered. What haunts me and the entire family most is the fact that the remnants of my son’s body are yet to be buried. In our holy scripture we are told, “We are from God and to him we shall return.” On this note and humbly, with tears of despondency streaming on my face I hearby give the coroner my consent so that his body is laid to rest. On the same note I would like to register my heartfelt appreciation to the government of Ireland for its sincere and genuine concern for human rights, free from favour or discrimination.

  Thanking you in advance,

  Somoe Bakari Shigoo.

  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.

  Husna rejected the allegations that Noor was a violent rapist and said he never once hit her during their marriage. Husna Said married Noor when she was seventeen and the couple lived in Mombasa and had three children together. Noor walked out on his family in 1993, saying he was going to Europe to set up a base and that he would later fly his wife and children over to join him. Said was pregnant at the time. But it appears Noor had no intention of ever seeing his family again. He appears to have lived in London until December 1996, when he managed to board a flight from Rome to Dublin and claim refugee status, making up an elaborate story that he was fleeing from war-torn Somalia. During his years in Ireland, Noor kept in contact with his wife and children and regularly sent his elderly mother money. But Said did not find out her husband had been murdered until six months after he died, when gardaí discovered Noor’s identity and tracked his family down.

  Said’s teenage daughter Somoe was weak and suffered with health problems. She was often confined to a wheelchair and when the seventeen-year-old heard her father was dead, her health deteriorated. ‘She got a shock over her father’s death and got a fever. She was seventeen years old, the firstborn. When she heard the news, she got a fever and lost her memory. She then fell into a coma for two days and died. She was in high school. She lost consciousness and never woke up. I miss her so much because she was a beautiful person. Sometimes I feel like killing myself,’ Husna said.

  The couple had two other children: fifteen-year-old Mohamed and thirteen-year-old Zuleh. Husna said her whole family was affected by the trauma of Noor’s murder and that they will never get over it. ‘[Someo] was the most important one and I loved her very much,’ she said. ‘I have no one to help me and am really going through a hard time. Sometimes I want to commit suicide because I have nothing left in this world.’ Farah’s mother used t
o give Husna some of the money her son would send from Ireland but since his death the entire family is living in poverty. She has applied to Ireland’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Board for compensation but has heard nothing from them. ‘They sent me some forms to fill in and I sent them back last March but I have heard nothing since then. I am supporting my two kids for the last two years without any money,’ she said. ‘I am a single woman and have no money. Life is very tough with the kids and it is hard bringing them up. I cannot pay their school fees. Farah left us and I have been supporting them by myself ever since. I work long hours as a cook and have to rush home to prepare them dinner. Life is very hard.’

  Farah and Husna were from strict Muslim families and Husna had to stay indoors, mourning her husband for at least three months after his death. This meant that she was unable to go out to work to support her children. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board has the power to give financial compensation to Noor’s family but Husna says she is not all about money. ‘No matter how much I get, I will never be happy for the rest of my life. I loved Farah a lot. He was my first love and I married him when I was seventeen. It was a marriage of love and not arranged.’

  Husna said that Noor’s relatives in Kenya were extremely angry Kathleen Mulhall had not yet faced a jury to answer to any alleged role she might have played in the murder of the Kenyan.

  ‘Of course I’d like to see her in jail, and Farah’s mum is the same,’ she said. ‘She complains, asking why is she not arrested or in jail. I want to sue Kathleen. She can’t run away just like that. Wherever she is, she will never be comfortable for the rest of her life. Allah will never forgive.’

  Husna had asked Noor for a divorce shortly before his murder because ‘he didn’t care about his family and didn’t send money, so we argued. He used to call me about 2005 and I have many letters he used to send me. I told him I wanted a divorce because he was not responsible for the kids. Everything fell on me. He didn’t care about the kids. He liked drinking. I didn’t trust him; he was an alcoholic.’