Scissor Sisters (convicted killers)
Encyclopedia
Linda and Charlotte Mulhall are sisters from Dublin, Ireland
, known for having killed and dismembered the Kenya
n immigrant, Farah Swaleh Noor, in March 2005. Noor was killed with a Stanley knife wielded by Charlotte and struck with a hammer by Linda following a confrontation with the sisters and their mother, Kathleen Mulhall, whom he was dating. His head and penis were sliced off and the rest of his corpse dismembered by the women and dumped in Dublin's Royal Canal where a piece of leg still wearing a sock was spotted floating near Croke Park
ten days later.
The subsequent manhunt and the trial in October 2006 attracted intense media attention in Ireland as the true details of the crime slowly emerged. The sisters and their mother were arrested but released until Linda confessed to involvement in the crime. Kathleen Mulhall left the country at this point to live in England
. When Charlotte and Linda were charged with murder in December 2005, their father, John Mulhall, hanged himself in Phoenix Park
. As a result of the method they used to carry out the killing of Farah Swaleh Noor, Linda and Charlotte Mulhall were dubbed the Scissor Sisters by the media. Justice Paul Carney
, presiding over the trial, said during sentencing that it was "the most grotesque killing that has occurred in my professional lifetime". Charlotte Mulhall was given the mandatory life sentence and Linda Mulhall was given a 15-year sentence for manslaughter, with both being sent to Mountjoy Women's prison
in Dublin.
Noor's head and penis were never recovered, although Linda later admitted they had put the head in rubbish bins around Phoenix Park. It was also thought that they carried the head by bus to Tallaght
and buried it in a field, with Linda returning later to dig it up, carry it to another field using her son's schoolbag, smash it further with a hammer and bury it again. Linda attracted further media attention when she slit her wrists and was sectioned. Charlotte also attracted media attention when a photograph of her holding a knife to a male prisoner's throat was published; that action resulted in an increased security presence in all Irish prisons and Charlotte was moved from Mountjoy to Limerick
. Kathleen Mulhall voluntarily returned to Ireland in February 2008 and faced several charges. She pleaded guilty to helping clean up the crime scene in order to conceal evidence and was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2009.
The case, which has dominated news coverage in Ireland from 2005 to the present day, has resulted in several books and has been examined in at least one television series. It was said by the Irish Independent
s legal affairs correspondent Dearbhail McDonald to have "fuelled fears of ritual killings in Ireland".
, Dublin. Their parents John and Kathleen Mulhall raised a family of three boys and three girls. John Mulhall allegedly abused Kathleen. Their marriage broke down and Kathleen entered into a relationship with Farah Swaleh Noor in 2002. Noor moved into their family home with Kathleen and John Mulhall took some of his children and moved out. He rented various accommodations in Dublin over a period of a year, then moved back into the home after Kathleen left and moved to Cork
with Noor. Kathleen and Noor returned to Dublin in 2004. Noor allegedly subjected Kathleen Mulhall to regular beatings.
.
Act in October 2005. She was also involved in prostitution
.
During their trial, gardaí described the girls's upbringing as "troubled and tough".
n called Sheilila Salim whose family had been killed in Mogadishu
. Subsequent investigations revealed that he was in fact Kenya
n and that his family was still alive. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform ordered that he be deported but he appealed and was granted citizenship in March 1999 on grounds he became the father of an Irish-born child. He had four previous convictions for offences including intoxication, threatening and abusive behaviour and assault. In 1997, he rape
d a mentally disabled 16 year-old Chinese
girl. She later gave birth to a son. Two other women had children by him and both described having been raped by him. Noor had faced eight charges of disorder and assault, one involving a sexual assault in which a knife was found at the scene by gardaí. He was convicted on three occasions but never served time in jail. Noor lived in a number of areas in Dublin, including Dun Laoghaire
and Firhouse
, as well as the inner city before moving in with Kathleen Mulhall. Gardaí described him as being particularly violent towards women
. Noor was a suspect in the unsolved murder of Raonaid Murray which took place in September 1999. Authorities are now satisfied Noor did not carry out this murder.
, on 20 March 2005. This was on the bank holiday of Saint Patrick's weekend
.
and Kathleen Mulhall purchased Coca-Cola
which they drank as they walked around the city before stopping on the River Liffey
Boardwalk where Charlotte and her mother took ecstasy tablets. They returned to Kathleen Mulhall's flat where the women took ecstasy. Kathleen Mulhall crushed a tablet into the victim's drink so they were all on the same "buzz".
, limb
s and penis
were severed using a kitchen knife and hammer. They put towels over his legs to stem the flow of blood. The dismemberment took a number of hours and the body parts were placed in black plastic bags and a sports bag before being disposed of in the Royal Canal. This took the three women several trips. They decided not to throw the head in to prevent identification. The head was brought by bus to Tallaght where they walked through The Square Shopping Centre to Tymon North Park. They walked to where Charlotte dug a hole with a knife to bury the head. Kathleen Mulhall threw the knives and the hammer into a nearby pond. A number of days later, Linda Mulhall allegedly returned to the park and dug up the head. Using her son's schoolbag, she transferred it to a field in the Killinarden Estate, Tallaght, where she broke it up with a hammer before burying it again.
. Garda sub-aqua divers
retrieved most of the rest of his body in seven parts. Gardaí traced his identity through media appeals. Noor was only identified when someone recognised a t-shirt on the recovered torso. That key witness, a Somalian man who was the first to connect the missing Noor with the three Mulhall women, was paid a “substantial” reward by Crimestoppers. Noor's head and penis were never found.
The sisters and their parents were arrested in August but denied any knowledge of the killing. A number of weeks later Linda contacted investigating officers admitting her involvement. Gardaí took a voluntary statement from her at her home in Tallaght in August 2005. Until this, Gardaí had been making limited progress in the case. When Gardaí searched the Mulhall house in Ballybough, they found bloodstains that were later confirmed to match Noor's DNA
. After Linda's confession, Kathleen Mulhall fled the country in September 2005 and gardaí were unable to locate her again until January 2008. She was living in England
.
. Their trial took place in October 2006 with Linda Mulhall being found guilty of manslaughter
while her sister Charlotte was found guilty of the murder of Noor. Linda's jury accepted her defence of provocation.
Charlotte Mulhall was given the mandatory life sentence and Linda Mulhall was given a 15-year sentence for manslaughter. The judge argued that Linda, a heroin addict, had initially tried to halt the trial by refusing to take methadone
. Leave to appeal was refused for both sentences.
Linda Mulhall appealed the severity of her sentence on the grounds that it was passed without psychiatric and probation reports. This appeal failed, with the Court of Criminal Appeal
finding the sentence to be appropriate.
Charlotte Mulhall requested leave to appeal her conviction on the grounds that Justice Carney had put pressure on the jury
to reach a verdict even though the foreman had indicated they were deadlocked. This failed on the grounds that the defence did not raise objections to the comments during the trial and the fact that the jury was not affected by any alleged undue pressure to reach a verdict.
when his daughters were charged with the killing in December 2005. He was not believed to have been involved in the killing.
Linda Mulhall turned to alcohol and slashed her arms, causing her to spend over a week in a psychiatric hospital. In April 2009, she claimed to fellow inmates that she had in fact smashed Noor's head and distributed the fragments in rubbish bins in the Phoenix Park
. This first disclosure of where Noor's head had ended up, was referred to as "the final secret of the Scissor Sisters" by Cormac Looney in the Evening Herald
.
Charlotte caused a further national controversy in 2008 when photographs of her holding a knife to the throat of a male prisoner in Mountjoy Prison
were leaked to the press. As a result security in Irish prisons was increased. and Charlotte was moved to another prison in Limerick
.
The girls' brother, James Mulhall, pleaded guilty to the robbery of two prostitutes, claiming he robbed the women to support his own six children and his sister Linda's four children whom he took on after she was jailed.
from New York
, USA
.
Several books were written on the circumstances surrounding the death of Farah Swaleh Noor:
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, known for having killed and dismembered the Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
n immigrant, Farah Swaleh Noor, in March 2005. Noor was killed with a Stanley knife wielded by Charlotte and struck with a hammer by Linda following a confrontation with the sisters and their mother, Kathleen Mulhall, whom he was dating. His head and penis were sliced off and the rest of his corpse dismembered by the women and dumped in Dublin's Royal Canal where a piece of leg still wearing a sock was spotted floating near Croke Park
Croke Park
Croke Park in Dublin is the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association , Ireland's biggest sporting organisation...
ten days later.
The subsequent manhunt and the trial in October 2006 attracted intense media attention in Ireland as the true details of the crime slowly emerged. The sisters and their mother were arrested but released until Linda confessed to involvement in the crime. Kathleen Mulhall left the country at this point to live in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. When Charlotte and Linda were charged with murder in December 2005, their father, John Mulhall, hanged himself in Phoenix Park
Phoenix Park
Phoenix Park is an urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 km west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 16 km perimeter wall encloses , one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the seventeenth...
. As a result of the method they used to carry out the killing of Farah Swaleh Noor, Linda and Charlotte Mulhall were dubbed the Scissor Sisters by the media. Justice Paul Carney
Paul Carney
Paul Carney is a judge in the Irish High Court and the presiding judge of the Central Criminal Court. He is regarded as a leading expert on Irish criminal law and has presided over murder and rape trials since his appointment to the High Court in 1991...
, presiding over the trial, said during sentencing that it was "the most grotesque killing that has occurred in my professional lifetime". Charlotte Mulhall was given the mandatory life sentence and Linda Mulhall was given a 15-year sentence for manslaughter, with both being sent to Mountjoy Women's prison
Dóchas Centre
The Dóchas Centre is a closed, medium security prison for females aged 18 years and over located in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. It is also the committal prison for females committed on remand or sentenced from all Courts outside the Munster area of Ireland.Dóchas is one of two women's prisons in...
in Dublin.
Noor's head and penis were never recovered, although Linda later admitted they had put the head in rubbish bins around Phoenix Park. It was also thought that they carried the head by bus to Tallaght
Tallaght
Tallaght is the largest town, and county town, of South Dublin County, Ireland. The village area, dating from at least the 17th century, held one of the earliest settlements known in the southern part of the island, and one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres.Up to the 1960s...
and buried it in a field, with Linda returning later to dig it up, carry it to another field using her son's schoolbag, smash it further with a hammer and bury it again. Linda attracted further media attention when she slit her wrists and was sectioned. Charlotte also attracted media attention when a photograph of her holding a knife to a male prisoner's throat was published; that action resulted in an increased security presence in all Irish prisons and Charlotte was moved from Mountjoy to Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
. Kathleen Mulhall voluntarily returned to Ireland in February 2008 and faced several charges. She pleaded guilty to helping clean up the crime scene in order to conceal evidence and was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2009.
The case, which has dominated news coverage in Ireland from 2005 to the present day, has resulted in several books and has been examined in at least one television series. It was said by the Irish Independent
Irish Independent
The Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...
s legal affairs correspondent Dearbhail McDonald to have "fuelled fears of ritual killings in Ireland".
Mulhall family background
The Mulhalls were from Kilclare Gardens, a working class area in TallaghtTallaght
Tallaght is the largest town, and county town, of South Dublin County, Ireland. The village area, dating from at least the 17th century, held one of the earliest settlements known in the southern part of the island, and one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres.Up to the 1960s...
, Dublin. Their parents John and Kathleen Mulhall raised a family of three boys and three girls. John Mulhall allegedly abused Kathleen. Their marriage broke down and Kathleen entered into a relationship with Farah Swaleh Noor in 2002. Noor moved into their family home with Kathleen and John Mulhall took some of his children and moved out. He rented various accommodations in Dublin over a period of a year, then moved back into the home after Kathleen left and moved to Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
with Noor. Kathleen and Noor returned to Dublin in 2004. Noor allegedly subjected Kathleen Mulhall to regular beatings.
Linda Mulhall
Linda Mulhall was 30-years-old at the time of the killing. She was unemployed, had left school early and had four children. The relationship with the father of her children broke up and she got into another relationship with an individual who subsequently abused them. Linda had a history of alcohol abuse and suffered from an addiction to heroin. She had one previous conviction in 1993 for larcenyLarceny
Larceny is a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales,...
.
Charlotte Mulhall
Charlotte Mulhall was 23-years-old when the killing took place. Like her sister, she had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. She had a number of minor previous convictions for criminal damage and public order offences and was charged with criminal damage and given the ProbationProbation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
Act in October 2005. She was also involved in prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
.
During their trial, gardaí described the girls's upbringing as "troubled and tough".
Farah Swaleh Noor
Farah Swaleh Noor was 38-years-old at the time of his death. He arrived in Ireland in December 1996, claiming to be a SomaliaSomalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
n called Sheilila Salim whose family had been killed in Mogadishu
Mogadishu
Mogadishu , popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries....
. Subsequent investigations revealed that he was in fact Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
n and that his family was still alive. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform ordered that he be deported but he appealed and was granted citizenship in March 1999 on grounds he became the father of an Irish-born child. He had four previous convictions for offences including intoxication, threatening and abusive behaviour and assault. In 1997, he rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
d a mentally disabled 16 year-old Chinese
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
girl. She later gave birth to a son. Two other women had children by him and both described having been raped by him. Noor had faced eight charges of disorder and assault, one involving a sexual assault in which a knife was found at the scene by gardaí. He was convicted on three occasions but never served time in jail. Noor lived in a number of areas in Dublin, including Dun Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...
and Firhouse
Firhouse
Firhouse is a small outer suburb of Dublin, in South Dublin County, Ireland, developed from what was historically a rural village. It is located just south of the River Dodder, and is in the postal district of Dublin 24...
, as well as the inner city before moving in with Kathleen Mulhall. Gardaí described him as being particularly violent towards women
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
. Noor was a suspect in the unsolved murder of Raonaid Murray which took place in September 1999. Authorities are now satisfied Noor did not carry out this murder.
Events surrounding the killing
The killing took place at Kathleen Mulhalls's home in Richmond Cottages, BallyboughBallybough
Ballybough is a district of north Dublin, Ireland situated northeast of Summerhill, between the Royal Canal and the River Tolka. Adjacent areas are North Strand, Fairview and Drumcondra/Clonliffe. The name derives from the Irish baile "town" and bocht "poor"...
, on 20 March 2005. This was on the bank holiday of Saint Patrick's weekend
Saint Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 March. It commemorates Saint Patrick , the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of :Ireland, and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. It is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion , the Eastern...
.
Build-up to the killing
On the day of the killing, Linda, Charlotte, their mother and Farah Swaleh Noor had been drinking heavily in Dublin city centre. Farah bought vodkaVodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
and Kathleen Mulhall purchased Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
which they drank as they walked around the city before stopping on the River Liffey
River Liffey
The Liffey is a river in Ireland, which flows through the centre of Dublin. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the River Poddle and the River Camac. The river supplies much of Dublin's water, and a range of recreational opportunities.-Name:The river was previously named An Ruirthech,...
Boardwalk where Charlotte and her mother took ecstasy tablets. They returned to Kathleen Mulhall's flat where the women took ecstasy. Kathleen Mulhall crushed a tablet into the victim's drink so they were all on the same "buzz".
Death of Farah Swaleh Noor
Linda and Noor were sitting on a two-seater couch with Charlotte sitting on the arm, when Noor started touching Linda in a sexual way. He spoke into her ear, put his arms around her waist and refused to let her go. Kathleen then started screaming at him and a verbal altercation took place where Kathleen Mulhall was alleged to have instructed them to ”just kill him for me” Charlotte picked up a Stanley knife and struck Noor across the throat, inflicting a wound that sent him to the ground. Linda then picked up a hammer and hit him on the head a number of times. Their mother looked on but didn't participate. Noor was stabbed at least 27 times. It may have been more, but pathologists had no opportunity to examine the full body.Dismemberment and disposal of the corpse
Linda and Charlotte then dragged Noor's corpse into the bathroom where they began to dismember the remains. Noor's headHuman head
In human anatomy, the head is the upper portion of the human body. It supports the face and is maintained by the skull, which itself encloses the brain.-Cultural importance:...
, limb
Limb (anatomy)
A limb is a jointed, or prehensile , appendage of the human or other animal body....
s and penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
were severed using a kitchen knife and hammer. They put towels over his legs to stem the flow of blood. The dismemberment took a number of hours and the body parts were placed in black plastic bags and a sports bag before being disposed of in the Royal Canal. This took the three women several trips. They decided not to throw the head in to prevent identification. The head was brought by bus to Tallaght where they walked through The Square Shopping Centre to Tymon North Park. They walked to where Charlotte dug a hole with a knife to bury the head. Kathleen Mulhall threw the knives and the hammer into a nearby pond. A number of days later, Linda Mulhall allegedly returned to the park and dug up the head. Using her son's schoolbag, she transferred it to a field in the Killinarden Estate, Tallaght, where she broke it up with a hammer before burying it again.
An Garda Síochána investigation
The killing only came to light ten days later when Noor's leg, with a sock on the end, was seen floating in the canal, a few hundred yards from Croke ParkCroke Park
Croke Park in Dublin is the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association , Ireland's biggest sporting organisation...
. Garda sub-aqua divers
Garda Water Unit
The Garda Water Unit is a unit of the Garda Síochána, the police service of Ireland. Formerly known as the Garda Sub-Aqua Unit, the name was changed to incorporate the services of the non-diving surfaced based marine section....
retrieved most of the rest of his body in seven parts. Gardaí traced his identity through media appeals. Noor was only identified when someone recognised a t-shirt on the recovered torso. That key witness, a Somalian man who was the first to connect the missing Noor with the three Mulhall women, was paid a “substantial” reward by Crimestoppers. Noor's head and penis were never found.
The sisters and their parents were arrested in August but denied any knowledge of the killing. A number of weeks later Linda contacted investigating officers admitting her involvement. Gardaí took a voluntary statement from her at her home in Tallaght in August 2005. Until this, Gardaí had been making limited progress in the case. When Gardaí searched the Mulhall house in Ballybough, they found bloodstains that were later confirmed to match Noor's DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
. After Linda's confession, Kathleen Mulhall fled the country in September 2005 and gardaí were unable to locate her again until January 2008. She was living in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Murder trial of Linda and Charlotte Mulhall
Linda and Charlotte were both charged with murder and pleaded not guilty in the Central Criminal CourtOld Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
. Their trial took place in October 2006 with Linda Mulhall being found guilty of manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
while her sister Charlotte was found guilty of the murder of Noor. Linda's jury accepted her defence of provocation.
Charlotte Mulhall was given the mandatory life sentence and Linda Mulhall was given a 15-year sentence for manslaughter. The judge argued that Linda, a heroin addict, had initially tried to halt the trial by refusing to take methadone
Methadone
Methadone is a synthetic opioid, used medically as an analgesic and a maintenance anti-addictive for use in patients with opioid dependency. It was developed in Germany in 1937...
. Leave to appeal was refused for both sentences.
Linda Mulhall appealed the severity of her sentence on the grounds that it was passed without psychiatric and probation reports. This appeal failed, with the Court of Criminal Appeal
Court of Criminal Appeal
The Court of Criminal Appeal is the name of existing courts of Scotland and Ireland, and an historic court in England and Wales.- Ireland :See Court of Criminal Appeal ...
finding the sentence to be appropriate.
Charlotte Mulhall requested leave to appeal her conviction on the grounds that Justice Carney had put pressure on the jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
to reach a verdict even though the foreman had indicated they were deadlocked. This failed on the grounds that the defence did not raise objections to the comments during the trial and the fact that the jury was not affected by any alleged undue pressure to reach a verdict.
Court case against Kathleen Mulhall
Kathleen Mulhall voluntarily returned to Ireland in February 2008 and was charged with, among other offences, two counts of giving false information to gardaí about Noor's whereabouts, and withholding information which she "knew or believed" would be of assistance in prosecuting her daughters for Noor's murder. She was also charged with impeding an arrest in the murder investigation. She pleaded guilty to helping to clean up the crime scene in order to conceal evidence. Kathleen Mulhall was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2009.Mulhall family
The girls’ father, John Mulhall, hanged himself in Phoenix ParkPhoenix Park
Phoenix Park is an urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 km west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 16 km perimeter wall encloses , one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the seventeenth...
when his daughters were charged with the killing in December 2005. He was not believed to have been involved in the killing.
Linda Mulhall turned to alcohol and slashed her arms, causing her to spend over a week in a psychiatric hospital. In April 2009, she claimed to fellow inmates that she had in fact smashed Noor's head and distributed the fragments in rubbish bins in the Phoenix Park
Phoenix Park
Phoenix Park is an urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 km west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 16 km perimeter wall encloses , one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the seventeenth...
. This first disclosure of where Noor's head had ended up, was referred to as "the final secret of the Scissor Sisters" by Cormac Looney in the Evening Herald
Evening Herald
The Evening Herald is a mid-market tabloid evening newspaper published in Dublin, Ireland by Independent News & Media. It is published Monday-Saturday, and has three editions — City Edition, City Final Edition and National Edition...
.
Charlotte caused a further national controversy in 2008 when photographs of her holding a knife to the throat of a male prisoner in Mountjoy Prison
Mountjoy Prison
Mountjoy Prison , founded as Mountjoy Gaol, nicknamed The Joy, is a medium security prison located in Phibsboro in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. It has the largest prison population in Ireland.The current prison governor is Mr...
were leaked to the press. As a result security in Irish prisons was increased. and Charlotte was moved to another prison in Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
.
The girls' brother, James Mulhall, pleaded guilty to the robbery of two prostitutes, claiming he robbed the women to support his own six children and his sister Linda's four children whom he took on after she was jailed.
Books
The case received a high amount of attention due to the grotesque and macabre nature of the crime. This led to the sisters being dubbed "The Scissor Sisters" by the media after the pop groupScissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters are an American band "spawned by the scuzzy, gay nightlife scene of New York" who took their name from a sexual position between two women also known as tribadism...
from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Several books were written on the circumstances surrounding the death of Farah Swaleh Noor:
- The Torso in the Canal — John Mooney (Maverick House, ISBN 9781905379385)
- The Irish Scissor Sisters — Mick McCaffrey (Merlin Publishing, ISBN 1903582725) McCaffrey covered the case for the Sunday TribuneSunday TribuneThe Sunday Tribune was an Irish Sunday broadsheet newspaper published by Tribune Newspapers plc. It was edited in its final years by Nóirín Hegarty, who changed both the tone and the physical format of the newspaper from broadsheet to tabloid. Former editors include Conor Brady, Vincent Browne,...
.