THE MOTHER of the Mulhall sisters, who were jailed for killing the man whose headless torso was found in the Royal Canal, Dublin, will be sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to impeding the investigation.
Kathleen Mulhall (53), who was in a relationship with murder victim Farah Swaleh Noor, told gardaí she had helped clean up the crime scene to protect her two daughters, who had killed him, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
The court also heard that she offered to take the blame for her boyfriend’s death.
Mulhall, St Mary’s Park, Carlow, pleaded guilty in February to helping to clean up the crime scene to conceal evidence and prevent the apprehension of her daughters, knowing that Mr Noor had been murdered at Richmond Cottages, Ballybough, on March 21st, 2005.
Mulhall will be sentenced on Friday morning by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court, sitting at Cloverhill. The maximum possible sentence is 10 years.
In December 2006 her daughters, Charlotte (25), and Linda (32), were convicted, respectively, of Mr Noor’s murder and manslaughter. Yesterday, Garda Sheelagh Sheehan told the court that their mother was in a relationship with Mr Noor, whose dismembered body was found in the canal in March 2005. His head and penis were cut off and he had suffered multiple stab wounds to the trunk. His body was identified using DNA evidence.
During the investigation into Mr Noor’s death, Mulhall was interviewed six times by gardaí.
Mulhall told Mr Noor’s employers that he had gone to Kilkenny.
On August 3rd, 2005, Mulhall told gardaí that she knew nothing about Mr Noor’s death and that she had only heard about his death the previous day. She was interviewed once again over a month later. On that occasion she told gardaí she had been drinking with Mr Noor and her two daughters on the boardwalk in Dublin on the day of the killing.
All four ended up in Mulhall’s flat at Ballybough.
There was a disagreement between Mr Noor and Mulhall’s daughters, who went into a bedroom. Mulhall did not go in.
She told gardaí that she heard “roaring and shouting” and that Linda came out of the room, covered in blood and told her that Mr Noor was dead. She went into the bedroom and saw that Mr Noor was not breathing.
“I was dragged out. They slammed the door shut. I did not get back in.” She said that she did not see Mr Noor being killed.
Mulhall also told gardaí that she and her daughters cleaned up the room the next day.
When asked why she did not report the killing, she told gardaí: “Why do you think? Because of my children.” She said that at one stage she told her daughters she would go to the police and tell them she killed Mr Noor.
During this discussion, she asked her daughters who killed Mr Noor and was told it was Linda.
Kathleen Mulhall was released from Garda custody in September 2005 but gardaí were not able to locate her again until January 2008. She was living in England.
In the meantime, in December 2006, Charlotte and Linda were convicted, respectively, of Mr Noor’s murder and manslaughter.
Gardaí travelled to London in February 2008 and met with Mulhall. She said that she wanted to return to Ireland.
When she returned she went to Mountjoy Garda station and was interviewed. She said that she did not tell the gardaí what had happened to “protect her daughters”.
Mulhall has no previous convictions.