The Irish Scissor Sisters (18 page)

On the day of the murder Kathleen said that she was drinking with Noor and her two daughters. She said the four had been drinking heavily for the whole day and had also taken drugs, including ecstasy tablets. She said the two girls went home and that she and Farah parted at an off-licence on O’Connell Street that evening: ‘He went his way and I went my way.’ Her way was in the direction of Baggot Street, where she spent the evening working as a prostitute.

She claimed: ‘Farah went to see his other girlfriend, the Chink. He went to see the Chink; I was drinking, drinking vodka. I can’t remember. I was on the street that night, with a man that night. I was with a man, someone I went off with.’

Kathleen couldn’t remember who the client was, if he was Irish, where she stayed or what time she got home the following morning. She did say she hailed a taxi on the side of the road and arrived back very early but she couldn’t guess at what time. The guards asked her what she thought could have happened to Noor but she didn’t have any ideas, although she said, ‘He was so drunk with drugs and that when he was with Charlotte and Linda that he could fall asleep.’

The two of them often attended house parties with Noor’s friends throughout the city and she said it was possible that he’d gone off to one of these. He had a key to the flat and came and went as he pleased, as did she. They had the kind of relationship where they both came and went without telling each other.

During the interview she complained about having breathing problems and Dr Y M Fakih who practices at Whitehall was called to the station. Dr Fakih was the man who had pronounced Farah Swaleh Noor dead on the evening his body parts were pulled from the canal. Kathleen told him that she was suffering from asthma. She said she’d had chronic obstructive airways disease for several years and was using two inhalers. She told him she had lost one of them on the way to the Garda Station and had left the other one in her flat. She didn’t have any regular GP and couldn’t remember the name of the chemist where she got her inhalers. She did not have any specific medical complaint for the doctor and put simply, there was nothing wrong with her at all. Dr Fakih advised the gardaí to go to her flat and get her spare inhaler in case she needed it during questioning. They did this and resumed interviewing her.

After seeing the doctor the questioning continued and Kathleen admitted to buying bleach and bin bags in the Gala store the day after the killing. She said that the bleach was for cleaning a pair of white cords that Charlotte had given her. She said she spilled a glass of cranberry juice on them and used the bleach to try to clean them. She also agreed that she had bought black bin bags and aerosols for the flat after Noor was murdered, but said, ‘Everybody buys bin bags.’

Despite the fact that they had lived together for over three years and that countless witnesses had remembered seeing Farah Swaleh Noor in his Ireland jersey, Kathleen said she never saw him in the soccer top: ‘I didn’t recognise the top he was wearing. I never washed the top. I wasn’t interested in what Farah was wearing.’

Kathleen couldn’t explain how blood splatters were under the bunk beds in her flat and on the bedroom floor and wardrobe. She commented: ‘I don’t know; I’m not going to tell you bullshit.’ She was surprised when she was told that blood found in her flat matched Farah’s and said that if he was murdered at Richmond Cottages, ‘it must have happened when I wasn’t there’.

She took a photograph of Farah in her hand and shouted: ‘I did nothing to that man. That man knows I didn’t kill him. I never hurt a hair on that man’s head.’

Kathleen was shown Farah’s mobile phone but did not recognise it and said she never saw him with it. She didn’t know anything about how one of her daughters had given it to her husband, who had then sold it on to a work colleague.

During the interview DS Gerry McDonnell asked Kathleen if he could examine her mobile phone and she agreed. He noticed that she had a missed call at 1.11 p.m. that day, from a number saved on her mobile as J. It was the same number as the mobile that had been used by her son John to contact gardaí from Wheatfield to tell them about Farah Noor’s murder. She initially said that the number belonged to a close friend but eventually, reluctantly, admitted it was her son’s number and said he used a phone from jail.

Detectives played the 999 call and Kathleen first denied it was her son’s voice. Then she said her two boys were telling lies: ‘I never told my sons anything. My sons know nothing about me. When I do see my sons I will tell them that my boyfriend Farah is dead, something I only found out today.’

Detectives said that the two Mulhalls had informed on their family because they were ‘genuinely horrified at what happened’.

‘Not as horrified as I am,’ she replied, before adding, ‘My sons told you nothing. They would tell you nothing because they don’t know anything.’ The only reason she could give as to why they would wrongly ring the guards with such an extraordinary story was that her sons must have been looking for a reward. As Kathleen had made no admissions while in custody, she was released without charge at 10.10 p.m., twelve hours after being arrested. She commented, ‘All I could do was wish to God that I could help you. I can’t help you.’

John Mulhall was fitting windows in Terenure College, when a car pulled up alongside him at about 10.55 a.m. Detective Inspector Christy Mangan got out of the unmarked garda car and told John Mulhall that the guards wanted to question him about the murder of Farah Swaleh Noor. Detective Gardaí Adrian Murray and Dave O’Brien were also present, as was Garda Ronan Hartnett. Det Gda Dave O’Brien arrested him and drove him back to Store Street Garda Station. He was processed and searched at 11.12 a.m., before being placed in a cell. He was taken to an interview room at 12.10 p.m. He was interviewed three times while in custody. He also declined to have a solicitor present.

When he was questioned, John Mulhall offered no information to the gardaí. He said that he had not had contact with his wife since she had walked out on him in 2002 to go and live with Farah Swaleh Noor. He did not know Noor and had no dealings with him. He said he did not feel anything for him either way, although it was sad that anybody would die in such a brutal fashion. The fifty-three-year-old denied ever threatening the African and blamed his wife for the break-up of their marriage, not Farah.

John Mulhall said he did not know what the detectives were talking about when they told him about his sons coming forward to claim that he had removed items from the house where Farah was murdered. He said he was never in Kathleen’s flat and that John Junior and James were mistaken.

When gardaí pointed out that a white Berlingo van, with the registration number 97 D 11647, had been filmed near Richmond Cottages on 21 March, he confirmed that he drove a van with that registration number. He said, however, that the van belonged to City Glass, the company he worked for, and a few other people had access to it. Over the next few days, investigators went to City Glass to get statements from all John Mulhall’s work colleagues to eliminate them as being the driver of the van that morning. It was subsequently determined that nobody else had been driving the vehicle that day.

John Mulhall did admit to detectives that he had sold a work colleague a Sagem mobile phone that turned out to belong to Farah Swaleh Noor. He said that either Charlie or Linda had given it to him. He had no idea that it had belonged to the dead man or how one of his daughters came to be in possession of it.

Of the four Mulhalls detained, gardaí had nothing on John and this didn’t change after his arrest. Where Linda, Charlotte and Kathleen came across as being very hard during their initial interviews, John Mulhall struck the guards as being different. He had not come to their attention over the years and seemed genuinely shocked that he was being caught up in a murder investigation. His two brothers had come to Store Street Garda Station looking for him and John Mulhall was released without charge, just after 9 p.m.

Life for the Mulhall family started to disintegrate following the arrests. Kathleen effectively disappeared and cut off all ties with her daughters and did not contact them at all. Charlotte continued to work as a prostitute, even though she was pregnant and spent weeks at a time away from home. Linda went off the rails and started drinking heavily and using heroin, while John struggled with the burden of holding everything together.

After the four Mulhalls were released, gardaí met at a late-night conference to review the progress of the investigation. None of the prisoners had made any admissions while in custody and the gardaí were not in a position to prepare any files for the Director of Public Prosecutions. Nevertheless they had gained some valuable information that could be investigated further. They had also developed new insights into the demeanour of the family while they were being held. The detectives working the body in the canal case were all experienced investigators and, after reviewing the records of the interviews, agreed that Linda Mulhall was a potential weak link. She had gotten very emotional when they had mentioned the discovery of the body under Ballybough Bridge and she was clearly not being forthcoming with the truth. Kathleen and Charlotte were both cold fishes, who would lie through their teeth and probably believe they were telling you the truth. John Mulhall seemed like a decent man and it was also decided that they should keep on top of him, in the hope that he would crack.

All the investigators were aware that something significant would have to happen if they were to break this case quickly.

In the meantime the detectives continued to work any leads they had. Det Sgt Gerry McDonnell had been assigned to liaise with the African authorities and members of Farah’s family after he was identified through the DNA of his Irish son. The guards wanted to find out as much as possible about Noor and his background. Det Sgt McDonnell discovered that Noor had made an Irish asylum application in 1997. Through further investigation he also learned that Farah’s wife, who according to the application had supposedly been executed during the civil war, was in fact alive and well, living in Mombasa in Kenya. Farah’s three children, who he had claimed were missing, were also in good health – they were being cared for by their ‘dead’ mother.

On 12 September 2005 Det Sgt McDonnell spoke to Farah’s former wife, Husna Mohamed Said. Husna logged onto the garda website and identified Farah Swaleh Noor’s photograph as being that of her husband Sheilila Said Salim. She faxed the detective a copy of her late husband’s birth certificate. The Kenyan birth cert showed that Salim was born on 7 July 1965 in the Lamh District in the Coast Province. His mother was listed as Somoe Abubakar and his father’s name was Seyyid Salim. Farah Noor was not Somalian at all, as he had claimed to everybody he’d met in Ireland over the last eight years.

Farah had kept in constant touch with his ‘dead’ wife Husna since his arrival in Ireland in 1997 and they spoke regularly. Husna faxed the detective a letter that her husband had sent her on 6 November 1999. It had an address in the south of the city and was written in Bajun. Farah signed the letter as Sheilila S Salim and in it told his wife about his new partner and even sent her pictures of his Irish son. Husna was not bitter about this and was on good terms with Farah.

It was apparent to Det Sgt Gerry McDonnell that Farah Swaleh Noor and Sheilila Said Salim were in fact the same person. Farah Swaleh Noor was an assumed name Salim had used to get into Ireland under false pretences.

His wife would also later fax gardaí a copy of another letter Farah had sent to her, signed with his real name and dated 26 July 1995. He noted his address as 43 Eversleigh Road, East Ham, London E06 1HG. The letter begins in English before changing to Bajun. It reads: ‘To the one I love Husna Mohamed Said. I want to tell you that me I’m well but I miss you for long time you and my babies. How are you, me I am fine.’

It is thought that Noor may have lived in London for a number of years prior to arriving in Ireland and had a job as a butcher, but this theory has never been verified.

It later emerged that Noor also maintained regular contact with his family and phoned his mother almost every week. He also sent home money to his wife and, although he did as he pleased in Ireland, he made sure his children had food at home. His family relied on the small sums that he sent to them.