The Torso in the Canal (16 page)
Read The Torso in the Canal Online
Authors: John Mooney
Tags: #crime, #prison, #Ireland, #death, #Dublin, #violence, #Noor, #immigrant, #kill, #Scissor Sisters, #Kenyan, #Torso in the Canal, #life sentence, #dismemberment, #murder, #murderer, #immigration, #gardai, #killing, #sisters, #Linda Mulhall, #Torso, #ballybough bridge, #John Mooney, #royal canal, #forensic, #Farah Swaleh Noor, #croke park, #Mooney, #Kenya, #Charlotte Mulhall
© Collins Agency / Garrett White
Charlotte and Linda made conflicting statements to detectives when questioned about what had happened on the night Noor was killed. Weeks after denying any knowledge of Noor’s death, a distraught Linda contacted detectives to confess to the killing.
© Collins Agency / Chris Maddaloni
Marie Mulhall, who offered to make a statement to detectives detailing her sister Charlotte’s confession to the killing. She would later give evidence at the trial.
© Courtpix
John Mulhall Snr, who encouraged his daughters to confess to the killing. He tragically committed suicide in December 2005, shortly after Linda and Charlotte were arrested and charged.
About 40 people gathered at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin for the funeral of Noor. No members of his family were able to attend, as they were too poor to afford the flight to Ireland.
Linda’s legal team argued that she was paramount in solving the crime, given her confession to detectives. Charlotte had a six month old baby at this time, and would later request that her baby be brought into the prison with her.
© Sunday Times
© Courtpix
Mr Justice Paul Carney, who presided over the trial. He described it as ‘the most grotesque case of killing that has occurred within my professional lifetime.’
George Birmingham SC for the prosecution.
© Courtpix
Brendan Grehan SC, defence for Linda Mulhall, who argued a defence of provocation on his client’s behalf.
© Courtpix
© Collins Agency / Garrett White
As the trial went on, the emotion and tension got to Charlotte and especially Linda. She had admitted to detectives that she was haunted by the face of Noor after his death.
On 4 December 2006 Charlotte Mulhall was sentenced to life for the murder of Farah Swaleh Noor. After 18 hours of deliberation over three days, Linda Mulhall’s defence of provocation was accepted and she was sentenced to 15 years for manslaughter. She wept as her sentence was read out in court.
© Sunday Times
, 34, has reported on crime and terrorism for newspapers and broadcasters for over ten years. He is the Crime Correspondent for the
Sunday Times
.
He wrote and devised
The Underworld
, a four part documentary series broadcast on RTE television in 2003. He also produced
Sabhair ach Salach
, a series profiling Ireland’s richest criminals for TG4 in 2006.
His first book,
Gangster
(2001), the biography of drugs trafficker John Gilligan, was a No. 1 bestseller.
His second book,
Black Operations: The Secret War Against the Real IRA
(2003), co-written with Michael O’Toole, is still considered the definitive account on the Real IRA and the 1998 Omagh bombing.
Rough Justice: Memoirs of a Gangster
, (2004) which he ghost wrote for the Dublin criminal Maurice ‘Bo Bo’ Ward, was also a bestseller.