Two Dublin sisters have gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with the murder of an African man whose dismembered and headless body was pulled from the Royal Canal in Dublin last year. The jury heard the man's head has never been found.
Charlotte Mulhall (23), Kilcare Gardens, Tallaght, and Linda Mulhall (31), a mother-of-four from the same address, both pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of a man known as Farah Swaleh Noor (also known as Sheilila Salim) at Richmond Cottages, Ballybough, Dublin, on March 20th last year.
George Birmingham SC, said it was the prosecution's case that at a flat in Richmond Cottages, Mr Noor was murdered by the two women. He alleged that: "Charlotte Mulhall had a knife and that Linda Mulhall wielded a hammer with which she struck him a significant number of times on or about the head."
Mr Noor had been in a relationship with the mother of the two accused, Kathleen Mulhall. This relationship was described as "fraught" and "stormy" and he said it appeared the deceased was from time to time violent towards Ms Mulhall.
He said Mr Noor's body was discovered on March 30th, 2005, some 10 days after the alleged offence by two men who were walking along the Royal Canal in Ballybough. They saw a number of youngsters in the area, who appeared to be taking a keen interest in something in the water. When they investigated they found a number of body parts including an arm, a leg with what appeared to be a sock on it, what seemed to be a torso and a thigh. Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis was later called in and confirmed the body was that of an adult black male.
Mr Birmingham told the jury: "Members of the Garda sub-aqua unit retrieved parts of the body in the canal but what they retrieved did not constitute the body in its entirety because missing was the head and also missing was the deceased's penis."
He said an examination of the body revealed 22 stab wounds and injuries to "pretty well all" of the internal organs. Dr Curtis confirmed the man had died from stab wounds and it seemed he had been dismembered after death.
He said the deceased had presented himself as Farah Swaleh Noor, a Somalian to assist his application for asylum. However, subsequent inquiries revealed he was from Kenya and called Sheilila Salim.
Mr Birmingham told the jury that one obvious explanation why the body had been dismembered was to make the identification more difficult.
However, he said appeals in newspapers read by the African community eventually bore fruit and on May 9th, over a month after the initial discovery, witness Mohammed Ali Abu Bakaar recalled meeting Mr Noor on O'Connell Street on March 20th wearing an Ireland away soccer strip which was retrieved from the canal. The witness said the deceased was in the company of the two accused and their mother Kathleen. He appeared to have drink taken and Ms Mulhall and her two daughters were all in high spirits.
Mr Birmingham told the jury they would hear evidence of statements made by the Mulhall sisters to the gardaí, after Linda Mulhall asked to meet gardaí about the case on August 19th last year. He said both had admitted their involvement in the killing and disposal of Mr Noor's body.
He said Linda Mulhall had brought gardaí to three locations in Tallaght where she said Mr Noor's head had been at different stages.
Initially the head had been concealed in Seán Walsh Memorial Park in Tallaght where it had been buried, before being moved to another short-term location, then its final resting place. A search of a lake at the park also uncovered a kitchen knife and a claw hammer.
Mr Birmingham said: "It remains to this day that the head of Mr Noor has not been located."
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury.