The Torso in the Canal (6 page)

They had spent three years together, and had had a baby boy. For that reason alone, she was invaluable, but she knew more, as she would later recall in an interview:

‘I first met Farah when I was 16 years old. I was in third year in school. I was only a school girl. I actually met him when I was walking through town with my friends one day. He came over and started talking to me.

‘He told me he was 20. He was very charming at first. We started going out and it became very serious fast. I suppose now I realise it was puppy love but at the time it was very real.’

The relationship blossomed. The two became an item. Three months later, she got pregnant.

‘He didn’t get me pregnant just to claim asylum. He was very careful not to be seen to have a relationship with me just for that. Instead he became part of my family. He would spend a lot of time in my parents’ home and he became part of our family. You could say he was a full member of my family.’

Noor loved and cherished their child. While he was a Muslim, he allowed his partner to have her son baptised a Catholic; his religious beliefs were never an issue. After two years they decided to move in together.

‘We got a flat in Dublin and everything was great. I suppose you could say it was good for a period of time. Then he began to change.’

Much of what Noor told the mother of his son were lies. For a start, he was a chronic alcoholic, who had already been married in Kenya. He was also a father of three children, whom he had abandoned. He kept the existence of this relationship, in fact all matters pertaining to his previous life, a secret.

Perhaps the true measure of his duplicity could be gauged from the absolute conviction he showed every time he said his wife had died. Most of what he said was untrue; Farah Swaleh Noor was not even his name; he was born Sheilila Salim.

This was irrelevant to his young lover who didn’t care; she knew him and loved him for being Farah. The relationship was mostly normal until they moved in together, as she would tell:

‘I remember what happened the first time that things started to go seriously wrong. I was out with my friend and he started saying that one of my friends was a lesbian, who wanted to sleep with me. I just stood there, thinking that I was hearing things. He kept shouting abuse at my friend saying that she wanted me. It was stupid. That night I was too afraid to go home so I stayed with a friend.

‘The next day I went back home and he beat me. This happened every few days from that day onwards. Then the sexual violence started.’

Noor raped the mother of his child on a frequent basis, every few days. He disregarded her objections to sex out of hand.

‘He would just force himself on me—no matter how much I’d resist. He would force me to be with him and would never take no for an answer. This happened every day. It was a nightmare. I thought this was normal because I was very young. I also had a baby to care for and I just was too young to handle the situation. I also didn’t want to admit that I’d made a mistake.’

The relationship that started out as a loving and caring one now turned into a living hell; Noor beat her on a daily basis.

‘I left him twice but when I came back he’d beat me up. He’d then say he was sorry. When he’d hit me, I would fight back. It got so bad that I began to tell my friends and they demanded that I do something. One of them said she’d call my parents if I didn’t leave him and in the end, that’s what happened. She did.’

Her parents were shocked and horrified to hear the truth. No one had suspected a thing. Alcoholism now consumed Noor. It was not unusual for him to drink 3 litres of vodka a week. This inevitably forced him to lead a dysfunctional life.

‘When my parents found out, my Dad came down and collected me. I had been with him from 1998 to 2001. My father and mother could not believe what had been happening because they had treated Farah like one of their own. They were upset. They had no idea of the way he was treating me.’

Despite his own behaviour and violence, Noor refused to accept the relationship was over. He continued to visit his son every week in the hope of rebuilding the relationship.

‘Farah, he was a good father. He was a very loving father to his son and doted on him. He had his own problems with alcohol but I don’t think he was evil or anything like that. He just changed when he drank alcohol. It made him into a different man. There was a time when he was the nicest bloke in the world, but he turned into something else when he drank.’

His attitude to women continued to deteriorate, however. Alcohol only accelerated this. When the relationship ended, he refused to take no for an answer. It was at this point that he began threatening her.

‘He started to follow me around. Everywhere I went he would just turn up. He’d come to the house but then he’d hang around the area. If I went to the shops, he’d be there. If I went out for a drink, he’d turn up at the bar. I was afraid of him. I knew what he was capable of,’ she said referring to the rapes.

It was during the bitter break-up that Noor made references to the stabbing of Raonaid Murray, the young teenager whose death had convulsed Ireland. One night, while in a drunken rage, he implied that he was her killer. She later recalled the scene:

‘There were three of us outside a pub. He knew one of my friends had known Raonaid Murray and he started shouting: “You’re the reason why she’s dead.” My friend went straight to the gardaí because he was trying to suggest he was the killer.’

She eventually sought and secured a protection order keeping him away from her home, but this didn’t work. Instead it was a new relationship she entered into that drove Noor away.

‘When I met my husband, he virtually vanished. He knew there was no point, that I had met someone else. He didn’t even come to see our son. It was over.’

The conversation she shared with the detectives revealed more clues. She too mentioned Kathleen Mulhall, specifically that she had called her saying Noor was beating her.

‘She had started to call me asking for help. She said that Farah was beating her. She was very upset and was looking for help. I didn’t really know what to say because I had moved on, but she seemed desperate.

‘She asked me for advice. I remember one time, when she called late at night; she said she had got my telephone number from his phone. She was looking for advice. I advised her to leave him. I said he would never change. She wanted to know had he ever beaten me or attacked me. I told her the full story, and urged her to leave. I told her about the abuse.’

Kathleen, she said, always called late at night and was polite.

‘On one occasion, she told me she was pregnant and that she was calling because she knew I was also pregnant.

‘But I later found out that she never was. She knew I was in a new relationship but I told her to leave him. I remember telling her that he would never change and that something awful would happen if she didn’t.’

That was the last call. She never heard from Kathleen after that. This didn’t perturb her too much, for obvious reasons.

As the gardaí chatted to her in the living room of her council home, they next found out that Noor and his girlfriend had moved to Cork for a time. The woman said she had last seen him in September 2002, almost a year after the relationship ended.

This evidence was crucial, but her son was vital. If the torso and body parts found in the canal were indeed those of Noor, it would be his son’s DNA that could confirm it. The detectives thanked her for her time and then took a DNA swab from her son’s mouth. It was a simple process that could solve a complex case. As they left, they said they’d be in touch.

*****

Once Bakaar and Hyland made their statements, Linda and Charlotte Mulhall, and their mother, Kathleen, became suspects. This led detectives to the flat at Richmond Cottages on 21 May. When members of the team knocked at the door, they were told Kathleen had moved out. While this was not proof of any crime, it suggested that something had happened, at least—that she and Noor were no longer together.

In a strange twist of fortune, the fact that Kathleen had vacated the premises assisted the investigation team, as they were permitted entry to the flat by the new tenant Caitriona Burke, who lived there with her three-year-old son. She had thought nothing of moving into the flat and agreed to help the Garda in any way she could. The detectives asked if she had noticed anything unusual. Her answer was honest: she hadn’t. Though, when she thought back, she did recall a big blue ring on the floor at the bedroom door, and some missing carpet.

The missing carpet had been discovered by chance. When she had moved a double bed, she saw there was no carpet but just a concrete floor.

‘It was like it was just patched up to give the impression that there was carpet on the floor. The carpet at the window of the patio door just looked as if it was hacked,’ she told the detectives.

However, she never saw any blood stains. Figuring that a forensic examination of the flat could only produce results, Mangan asked if the occupant would allow members of his team to examine the scene. If his suspicions were correct, he knew the flat at Richmond Cottages would contain traces of blood; if Noor had been killed here, it would have to.

In almost all cases where the victims of murder have been killed in a violent fashion, traces of important evidence are left behind. Mangan knew a murderer could dispose of a victim’s body and mop up the blood, but without some heavy-duty cleaning chemicals, evidence would remain. Microscopic particles of blood left at the scene of a murder cling to most surfaces.

As a precautionary measure, Mangan sent a forensic team to the flat to take swabs from various locations in the room. If there were traces of blood, these could be matched against samples taken from the body parts, and Noor’s son. These swabs were taken on 26 May.

Blood speckles are invisible to the naked eye, however, they can be seen if a chemical called luminal—a powdery compound made up of nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and carbon—is used to reveal their existence. Samples of the blood particles found at the scene were taken for comparison with those taken from the torso.

*****

Meanwhile, Kathleen continued to enquire about Noor’s whereabouts in a desperate attempt to convince others that she thought he was alive. Her rationale was simple; if she knew he was dead, why would she have continued to search for him?

On 23 May, in what can only be described as a bizarre encounter, she approached Dermot Farrelly, a community Welfare Officer, who worked out of offices on Upper Gardiner Street. He later made a statement which read:

‘Kathleen Mulhall came into the office and I spoke to her at the counter. She was by herself. She was worried about Farah Swaleh Noor. She didn’t know his whereabouts. She was asking me to tell her from the records on file if we knew where Farah was, if we had any address for him. She wanted to know if we knew if he was alright. I told her that we weren’t in a position to give out information to her. She then said that Farah might be using his real name. She said she didn’t know how to spell the name but it was Sheila Swaleh, Shagu. That’s how she pronounced the name.

‘She wasn’t clear on the exact pronunciation. I have put variations of the name into the system but there is no match that is similar to the name at all on our computer files.’

*****

The detective team had become deeply interested in their relationship. Working methodically, the team began to build a picture of the life they led. Kathleen was the victim of sustained and repeated violence at Noor’s hands. This was later documented in her own statements but also in interviews from people who knew her. Why she continued to remain with him is open to conjecture.

The relationship between Noor and Kathleen was fraught with violence. Noor was a highly volatile and aggressive individual and this condition was exacerbated by his excessive drinking.

Reports prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions on the case would later state that she was ‘hospitalised on umpteen occasions as a result of beatings she received from the deceased.’

In fact, anyone who met the couple, even socially, couldn’t help but notice the violence Noor dispensed on her. At one point, the team were even told that she may have given premature birth and lost a child as a result of a beating. However, gardaí found no evidence to support this allegation and Kathleen later denied that it ever happened.

In truth, the relationship went wrong from the start. The two had first met around 2002. It was an illicit one as Kathleen was still married. Regardless, she left the family home in Kilclare Gardens and moved to Cork with Noor, where they lived in rented accommodation in Glanmire.

Things went from bad to worse in Cork. Witnesses would later recall how Noor was always very abusive towards Kathleen, although one remarked that ‘she could give as good as she got.’

Barry Sheehan, who came across the pair, would make a statement:

‘He was extremely violent. When he was sober he was the nicest fella in the world, which wasn’t often.’

On one occasion, according to Sheehan’s statement, Kathleen told him that Noor had kicked the baby out of her—that she had been heavily pregnant.

Maureen Moran was the landlord of the accommodation where they stayed in Cork, although the couple only lived there for five weeks. While she was collecting rent one day, she noticed that Kathleen was covered in bruises. Kathleen told her that Noor had beaten her up.

They returned to Dublin in September 2004, and went to the Asylum Seekers Unit on Upper Gardiner Street for assistance.

At the time, they were interviewed by an official called Derek O’Connor who arranged accommodation for them at The Mountainview Bed and Breakfast in Tallaght.

Mary Andrews, the manager there, provided the accommodation. Their records show that Kathleen only remained there until 4 October. Andrews would later make a statement saying Noor was very violent towards Kathleen, that she said he was jealous and possessive, and that Kathleen wanted to leave him but was afraid he would find her wherever she went.