The Torso in the Canal (11 page)

She went on to tell the interpreter that Lulu Swaleh, her nephew, had called Kathleen in the months that followed the disappearance asking about Noor, but she had maintained that he had left her.

McDonnell took down the details as best he could as the interpreter relayed the times, dates and her recollections of the long distance calls.

There was one that was of particular interest to the detective sergeant. One night around 2am, Kathleen rang Lulu in a distressed state, speaking about Farah. She had been incoherent and didn’t make sense. Although he wasn’t sure why, Noor’s cousin felt that something was seriously wrong.

The call remained etched in his mind because the family had never heard from Kathleen again, nor Noor, whom had vanished without trace from their lives.

Chapter Eight

‘Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.’

-
George Eliot

The appearance of
Linda in the District Court, on murder charges, terrified Charlotte. She felt weak and vulnerable but she also felt this growing sense of unease. Like Linda, she couldn’t sleep at night and found it difficult to maintain any semblance of normality in the face of extreme internal pressure and depression. She too had flashbacks of the night she killed Noor and dismembered his body. She played it over again and again in her mind.

She couldn’t help but think of her own terrifying predicament; the weakness of her position was now apparent. If Linda had been charged with murder, she knew it was only a matter of time before she was re-arrested and brought to court. No matter what way she examined the situation, no matter what the context, she came to the conclusion that she was doomed.

There is no doubt that her father attempted to convince her to confess, but she was too afraid. She was terrified.

Whether it was because she had physically killed Noor, and been the instigator of the dismemberment that she chose to remain silent will never be known. Matters were not helped because she was now leading a dysfunctional life, moving between homes and taking drugs. This left her in a humiliating position insofar as her immediate family did not know of her problems, and she desperately wanted to get on with her life. She was a girl in need of urgent help.

She hoped against hope that she would be spared further inquiries from the Garda. This belief, which was no more than an idle hope, was encouraged when she learned from Linda that she had been charged on the basis of the statements she had made incriminating herself.

To survive mentally, Charlotte convinced herself that she was untouchable; though in reality she was just as vulnerable as her sister.

Although she had been arrested in August, she had been freed without charge. She interpreted this as a good omen—a sign there was no evidence against her. What she didn’t understand was that Linda’s statements constituted new evidence which permitted the team to arrest her for the same offence, once more.

The inevitable happened on the morning of 17 October, almost four weeks after Linda’s court appearance. Charlotte had gotten into more trouble. While she had vanished for a time, the team had managed to locate her.

She visibly weakened when she saw them. This time, Hickey was the arresting officer. There was a warrant out for her arrest in relation to a number of minor charges. Like Linda weeks earlier, she too was taken to Mountjoy Station for interrogation.

She was at times polite and friendly, but at the same time she could be aggressive. In some ways, she would show disdain for the detectives. They interpreted this as bravado; an act she engaged in to make herself look hard when she was frightened.

This time, the interview was conducted by Detective Garda Mike Smyth and McDonnell. It began at 4.21pm that afternoon. Charlotte at first seemed to co-operate but it soon became clear that she was lying about much of what she said.

The interrogation began with McDonnell and Smyth explaining the reason why she had been arrested. This was explained to her in a slow and methodical way. They said they believed that she was in a position to help the investigation into Noor’s death.

Charlotte answered that she was, which came as a surprise. Given that Linda had made a full confession, the interrogators asked if she wanted them to contact someone.

‘No Linda knows I’m here,’ she answered. She then said she didn’t want a solicitor. The interrogation then proceeded.

McDonnell led the questions.

‘You were arrested earlier in relation to this?’

‘Yes.’

‘Were you aware we had a warrant for your re-arrest?’

‘No, I wasn’t aware of that,’ she said, which she wasn’t.

‘When you were in the first time you answered our questions, what do you say about that?’

‘I did know about it, I was lying,’ she said.

‘Are you prepared to tell us the whole truth?’

This was a typical garda ploy to put the suspect on a firm footing to be discredited if she lied. However, it also gave Charlotte the opportunity to tell her version of what happened, or to contest her recollection of the night’s events against Linda’s, if she so wished.

While McDonnell and Smyth may have initially thought she was about to confess; they knew this was not to be when she answered their next question.

Without fear of contradiction, Charlotte said she was now going to tell the truth. Then, she took a deep breath and lied.

‘I am but I wasn’t in the flat when it happened.’

The two detectives never flinched, nor showed their disbelief at her denial. Instead they proceeded methodically.

‘You were out?

‘Yeah me and Linda, from 10 till 5 or 6 the next morning.’

‘Where?

‘Around town, drinking.’

‘You are aware Linda has told us she was in the flat?’

‘I am, I don’t know why she told you that.’

‘When did you last see Farah Noor?’

‘Just before we left the flat on 20 March.’

‘Do you know what night that was?’

‘No.’

‘How do you know it was the 20 March though?’

‘Cause it’s my birthday the next day,’ she retorted.

The interview continued in this vein. Her denials sounded more pitiful than contrived because Charlotte knew her sister had confessed, and furthermore that Linda’s statement had been corroborated by evidence found at the crime scenes.

Still she maintained she had left the flat with Linda at about 10pm, and they had spent the night drinking on the boardwalk.

It became clear that she was not just trying to protect herself; she was trying to protect Linda. Given that Charlotte had initially attacked Noor for his indiscretion in physically touching Linda, this made every sense.

Her story, though, only made sense in her own mind, as she hadn’t thought it through. It was full of inconsistencies and contradictions, which were clear.

McDonnell, who had dealt with scores of hardened killers in his career, never stopped Charlotte from contradicting herself, even at times when he knew she was lying outright. Smyth also remained impassive.

She continued to lie, claiming that when she and Linda had returned to their mother’s flat the following morning; they found Noor dead, and his body dismembered.

Contrary to this, in the statement she made later, which was produced in court, she claimed that when she came home, she found her mother covered in blood.

She said at first that she thought her mother had been assaulted by the dead man, but then her mother said she had killed him with a hammer and by cutting his throat, before chopping up his body.

Asked about her sister’s earlier statements, her answer was categorical. ‘I just think Linda is mad for saying things she didn’t do.’

There was purpose in this statement. It was designed to make the detectives second guess themselves and wonder if Linda had indeed told the truth.

The next question was the only logical one the interrogators could ask. If this was the case, why had Linda lied?

‘Because we promised my ma we would say we did it,’ Charlotte answered.

She didn’t stop there. She next admitted that she had helped dump the body parts, and took money from Noor’s bank account, but maintained that she had killed no one, and neither had Linda. This left the detectives in a situation where they could only shrug their shoulders. However, her denials presented them with an opportunity to take the interrogation in another direction. If this was Charlotte’s story; then they would test its veracity. They began by asking simple questions; they asked her where they had gone after they left Richmond Cottages.

‘Name one place that I can find you on video that night between 10pm and 6am?’ they asked.

‘The boardwalk,’ she said.

 ‘So if I look at the video I’ll find you?’

 ‘Yeah.’

 ‘That’s simply not true?’

 ‘It is.’

 ‘Why does Linda’s story gel and yours is full of inconsistencies?’

 ‘I don’t ... ’ Charlotte looked towards the ground. She couldn’t make eye contact. Inside, she was panicking.

‘Did your mother ever tell you of assaults?’

‘Yes. He broke her ribs,’ she said, trying to rescue the situation.

‘Were they arguing earlier in the day?’

‘Yes.’

‘So you are telling us you left whilst your mother and Farah were arguing?

‘I was sick listening to them.’

‘Did your mother tell you that Farah had threatened to kill her two weeks previously?’

She looked up momentarily.

‘No.’

‘Did you know that your mother was being beaten?’

‘Yes but not since they came to Dublin,’ she said, again refusing to make eye contact.

They next pursued a line of questioning that was to the forefront of their minds. The team had received the specific details of the telephone traffic between the phones of the main suspects at crucial times. These showed that John Mulhall Snr and his wife had talked on the night of Noor’s death.

‘Did your father have much contact with your mother?’

Charlotte was surprised by the question, but answered:

‘No.’

‘Would they ring each other?’

‘Not unless he was looking for me.’

‘Are you close to your father?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you tell him about this?’

She lied. ‘No,’ was her final answer.

‘Tell anyone?’

‘No.’

‘Do you feel sorry about all this?’

‘Yeah.’

‘If you were going to defend your mother over this why didn’t you go to the police?’

‘I just didn’t.’

‘Were you staying in Richmond Cottages?’

‘I was.’

‘What happened to Farah’s ATM card and mobile?’ they asked.

‘Mammy gave me his ATM card and I took money out.’

‘You say the bags with Farah’s body were in the flat when you got back?’

‘Yeah, in the bathroom.’

‘Did you bring them down to the canal?’

‘Yeah about 7.30am.’

‘Where was the head?’

‘I don’t know, me ma had it.’

‘And his penis?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘What kind of bags was the body in?’

‘Sports bags, three.’

‘What happened to them?’

‘We dumped the parts and brought them back to the flat, ma put them in black bags I think.’

The next question threw her but also revealed her own complicity in the killing and dismemberment.

‘What did she say she cut him up with?’

‘A knife.’

‘How did she overpower him?

‘She hit him with a hammer.’

Without warning, they then returned to her alibi. 

‘What did you drink while you were out of the house?’

‘Vodka and cans.’

‘So you went around the town for eight hours, drinking and taking heroin?’

‘Yeah,’ she answered.

The detectives were skilled at their job. They changed the line of questioning again; this broke her concentration momentarily.

‘Where was Farah’s head?’

‘Out the back in a sports bag. A small one.’

‘Where did it end up?’

‘I don’t know. She said she would get rid of it.’

This question had thrown her. Linda had taken the head. She knew this. More importantly, she knew the detectives in the room knew this.

‘Can you tell us any person, anything, any phone call you made, while you were out that night?’

‘No.’

‘And Linda does not say she was out?’

Charlotte made a pitiful sight and her repeated denials were pathetic; not because they were easily dismissed; but because they were sad and misguided. Charlotte was lying in a misguided attempt to protect her sister, who had already accepted her fate and the consequences of her actions.

Inside though, she knew she was fighting a losing battle.

Finally, when she had done everything that she could, she broke. The catalyst was a simple question that McDonnell posed; he once more asked her why Linda’s story gelled when hers was full of inconsistencies.

She had no answer because there was none.

In an attempt to show her some kindness, the detectives asked her once again if she wanted to speak to a solicitor. She declined the offer.

However, the question had some impact on her. Her answers became short and she now stared at the ground, deep in thought. When they mentioned Linda again, tears welled up in her eyes.

McDonnell spoke calmly and directly to her, this time looking her straight in the eye, almost encouraging her to confess, for her own benefit, if not Linda’s.

Rather than allowing her to tell more lies, he confronted her with the undeniable truth, making a specific reference to Linda’s statement, which said she had disposed of the head.

Charlotte tutted in response, in much the same way as a teenager does when scolded by a parent.

‘Why have you not spoken to a solicitor?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘But it’s a very serious charge?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘But you know it’s your right?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Did you look for a solicitor before?’

‘No.’

‘Do you still feel you don’t require a solicitor?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Do you want us to contact one for you?’

‘No.’

‘Do you want to tell us the truth?’

Charlotte hesitated for a moment; she stared at the floor once more, then took a deep breath and began to sob. Tears streamed down her face. Then she said the following:

‘Everything that Linda says happened.’

The weakness of her position was apparent; not alone could she not tell another lie; she didn’t want to. Like Linda, she had had enough. Noor had haunted her.

‘What do you want to say about what you said earlier?’

Fighting back the tears, the only word she could muster was, ‘Sorry.’

‘Were you doing it to protect Linda?’

She was incapable of speech now. She nodded in reply, through her tears, struggling to speak or focus her mind on the questions she was being asked. She cut a poignant figure in the interrogation suite. She did not fit the profile of a ruthless killer; she was the opposite. She was a damaged woman.