The Irish Scissor Sisters (26 page)

June Byrne, who knew Kinsella because she was friendly with his sister, told Judge Michael White she had lived in fear of Kinsella. She said she could now relax knowing he was locked up.

Judge White again described Wayne Kinsella as ‘a man with a predilection to violence’. He said Kinsella’s intimidation of Ms Byrne and hijacking of her car was a very serious offence. He said Kinsella had a violent history he needed to deal with. The Judge suspended the four-year sentence, on condition that Wayne Kinsella underwent an anger-management course in prison and that he not approach the victim, or her family. Kinsella was bound over to keep the peace for four years, after the date of release from his seven-year sentence.

Linda told DI Christy Mangan and Sgt Liam Hickey of how Wayne Kinsella had regularly beaten her. She also mentioned that Farah Noor was violent towards her mother. She said she couldn’t get Noor’s image out of her mind, so she had started to cut her arms again. All she saw when she dreamed was Farah Swaleh Noor and she wanted this to stop now: ‘I’m glad I told the truth and feel much better,’ she told the men as she got out of the car.

Her dad was waiting at the door and the pair embraced and held each other for a long time. She then turned to DI Mangan and hugged him and shook his hand before going into the house to have her first good night’s sleep since the murder.

The next twelve days were busy for gardaí. Huge searches took place in the three fields and parks in Tallaght. On 22 August Garda Eamon Bracken recovered a knife and a large hammer from the lake in Sean Walsh Park. These were the principle weapons used to murder Farah. Despite long garda hours being put into extensive searches at Killinarden Park and Killinarden Hill, nothing of any evidential value was ever recovered.

At lunchtime on 2 September, the two investigating gardaí again visited Linda at her home. She was not in good shape. The mother-of-four couldn’t sleep at all now and DI Mangan suggested that she should go to see her doctor to get a prescription for sleeping tablets. She thought this was a good idea but said she couldn’t go with the guards, to point out where they’d been on the day of the murder, because she couldn’t organise a babysitter for her kids. She didn’t want to leave them with Andrew, her eighteen-year-old brother.

DI Mangan and Sgt Hickey came back five days later and Linda was in the kitchen ironing clothes and preparing dinner for the kids, who were due home from school. She made the men coffee and told them that she’d spoken to her sister, who was going to hand herself in to them. When she finished ironing, they went back to the field in Killinarden Hill so a detective could film the scene on video. She rang her brother on the way and asked him to collect a prescription for sleeping tablets for her at the local clinic. They went back into the field and she led them to the same area where they’d been on 19 August. She said she was certain that this was where she had brought the head and smashed it up. Detective Garda Dominic Cox, a scenes of crime examiner based at Mountjoy, filmed this as evidence.

The detectives needed to know exactly where Linda and her sister and mother had been with Farah on the day he was murdered. On the way into O’Connell Street Linda started crying in the car because she couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened. None of the guards had tissues so they stopped at a petrol station on the Tallaght by-pass and Linda bought tissues and cigarettes. She started to speak about how her daughter loved sports and was very good at football. Linda was sad because she knew she was going to spend a long time in jail. After showing the guards where they had drunk on the Liffey Boardwalk, they drove up O’Connell Street. She indicated where Farah and Kathleen had had the fight, after seeing the Chinese child:

‘I could hear Farah and me ma fighting. We walked up O’Connell Street, where the cinema is. Some time after that we met a little Chinese boy playing with his friends. Farah started saying to the boy, “Cathy, this is my son; this is my son.” My ma said, “Go away, you bleeding eejit; that is not your son.” Farah said back to my ma, “It is my son, I know my own son.” My ma said, “This is not your fucking son.” The little boy was roaring and crying, he was really screaming. I think he was about five years old. Charlotte was still linking me at this time. I said to Charlotte, “Come on, let’s walk.” ’

The garda car continued towards Ballybough and she pointed to the right-hand side of the bridge where they had dumped Farah’s body parts: ‘We got Farah into the bathroom. Myself and Charlie dragged him by the legs and me and Charlie cut him up. It was Charlie’s idea. Me ma kept screaming, “Get him out; get him out.” When I hit Farah with the hammer, Charlie stabbed him in the chest with the skinny knife. She cut him up with another knife with a rugged blade. She cut into his legs with the knife. She got tired. The smell was … it won’t go away, I think about it every night. I can’t even look at a black person anymore. I done that to my arm [points to cuts]. I did not want to wake up. I then used the hammer and hit his legs a number of times. It took us a few hours to do it. Me ma did not cut him up. We had to put a towel over there when we were removing his legs to stop the blood rushing out. We cut him on the knees and on the elbows. Me ma had told me already that he had raped her and I said, “He won’t rape my ma again.” I cut his private parts off – the long piece, not the balls. We threw it in the canal with the rest. I was sitting in the shower part and Charlie was sitting on the toilet. Me ma done nothing. I had the towel over his head, over his face, and kept using the hammer. It would not come off. Both of us had to take turns with the hammer. I did not think about chopping it up but Charlotte said to do it. Me ma said, “Get it out of here.” Me ma had sports bags. Charlotte started putting the heavy pieces into the sports bags but into black plastic bags first. I took the light bits and Charlotte took the heavy bits. We walked down to the canal. Me ma walked with us. You asked us to tell the truth, I am telling you the truth. We walked down to the canal a few times; it took a few times to go up and down. I see him every night in me mind before I go to sleep. I don’t see him as a bad thing, just when he and Ma were happy. The smell won’t go away, it just won’t.’

Linda burst into tears and said she couldn’t walk down to the water and could never return to the flat where they had killed a man. DI Mangan reassured her and told her she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to do, so they drove to Mountjoy Station where she made another statement.

While Linda was taking to the gardaí, Charlotte rang her on her mobile and her sister said she was with the guards. Charlotte again said she would go and see them.

Linda became upset again after this but didn’t want to cut the interview short. Sgt Hickey read her final statement back to her and asked if she wanted to add anything to it.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, as she struggled to breathe from all the crying.

Further arrangements had been made for Linda to meet with the two detectives. She spoke to Sgt Liam Hickey again on 29 August and said she had to go into hospital to get some staples removed from her stomach. They cancelled the meeting and postponed it until 7 September, when she again accompanied the two men to examine and point out the various crime scenes. The guards were looking for Charlotte at this stage but she was avoiding them, even though she had agreed to speak to them and make a full statement. Linda said that she had spoken to Charlotte the previous evening. She said Charlie had agreed again that she was also going to give herself up and tell them what had really happened. The police were also looking for Kathleen but she too was nowhere to be found.

They drove around Ballybough and over the bridge. Linda spoke about how she had gone to see Kathleen to plead with her to go back and dig up Farah’s head: ‘I rang me ma and said I have to go back down. I asked me ma to come with me. I went to my ma in Summerhill and asked her to come back down with me. The day I asked me ma to go with me was the day the guards were pulling Farah out of the canal. We were in the house, crying. We went down close to the bridge, close to where the guards had the tape. We walked on the side, away from Gala. We asked some people what was after happening. We went home and watched the news. We watched the news all the time.’

DI Christy Mangan was worried about Linda’s mental state and rang her a few times to see how she was. She had gotten her sleeping pills but still wasn’t sleeping because all she was thinking about was Farah and what she’d done to him. DI Mangan told her that if she needed anything at all to ring him or Sgt Hickey.

By 12 September Det Sgt Gerry McDonnell had tracked down Farah Noor’s wife in Kenya and confirmed that Farah Noor was in fact Sheilila Salim. With the identity of the victim confirmed, Detective Superintendent John McKeown got in touch with Robert Sheehan, a professional officer at the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) office. The decision was made to charge Linda Mulhall with murder.

On 13 September DI Mangan left Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station and made his way to Dublin District Court Number 44 where Judge Hugh O’Donnell was sitting. He swore information in order to get a warrant for the arrest of Linda Mulhall.

The following morning at 9.30 a.m. DI Mangan, DS Colm Fox and Garda Nichola Gleeson called to 31 Kilclare Gardens. Linda was in the kitchen and looked at Christy and the two new faces and instantly realised that the day had come when she was going to be arrested and taken away from her beloved children.

DI Christy Mangan arrested her by placing his hand on her arm and cautioning her that anything she said could be taken down and used in evidence against her. Linda said she understood and started crying. She sat down on a kitchen chair and sobbed into the table.

The inspector took a tissue from his pocket and handed it to her. ‘Do you want to get a few things together, Linda?’ he asked.

‘I’ve had my bag packed since the first day I met you, Christopher,’ she replied sadly. She went to her bedroom in the outside extension to change her clothes and get ready to go to jail.

Detective Inspector Mangan had purposely waited until Linda’s kids had gone to school before arresting their mum. He rang Kevin Tunney, Linda’s solicitor, while she was gathering her stuff together. She came back with Garda Gleeson after a minute and stopped to turn off the oven. Although it was early in the morning she was already cooking a chicken for her children’s dinner that evening. She then walked out with the gardaí and got into the patrol car. DI Mangan didn’t think it was necessary to handcuff her.

The gardaí arrived at Mountjoy Garda Station with the prisoner at 10.55 a.m. Garda Suzanne Carlos wrote up the custody record and was given details of Linda Mulhall’s arrest. As her bag and jewellery were taken away, Linda asked that her solicitor be officially notified of her arrest. She was brought to the medical room of the station and given a full body search.

At 11.07 a.m. her solicitor, Kevin Tunney, arrived at the station and spoke to her in private. They talked for a few minutes and Linda was offered a meal by Garda Carlos but asked for a cup of coffee instead.

At 11.22 a.m. on 14 September 2005, Sergeant Shay Roche charged Linda Mulhall with the murder of Farah Swaleh Noor. The charge read: ‘For what you the said accused did on or about the 20th March 2005 at Flat No. 1, 17 Richmond Cottages, Ballybough, Dublin 1 in the said Dublin Metropolitan District did murder one Sheilila Salim, otherwise known as Farah Swaleh Noor.’

Linda said ‘no’ as the charge was read out. She was given another cup of coffee before being quickly taken to the District Court where Judge Malone remanded her in custody to appear before him again one week later. She was released on bail the following week, to await her trial.

Linda’s social worker says she does not have a robust personality and is easily led. The thirty-five-year old has a strange relationship with her mother, Kathleen. She was devoted to her mam when she was young but never felt she got much in return. It was a massive blow to her when Kathleen took up with Farah Noor and the two fell out. For a few years Linda did not have much of contact with her mother but their relationship gradually improved over time and the frequent nights out in Cork helped to heal things. At the time of the murder, Kathleen had opened up to her daughter about the abuse she was suffering at Noor’s hands and claimed that he had raped her. Even though they were getting on better, Linda’s faith in her mother was still not great and she didn’t fully believe the tales. She had never witnessed Farah being violent. She later told gardaí in a statement: ‘My Ma told me she loved me better than the other kids but she never showed it to me. I was always very good to her.’