Sister gives evidence in Canal body trial
The younger sister of two Dublin women on trial for the murder of an African man who’s headless body was found in the Royal Canal in Dublin last year, has claimed she was told the deceased tried to rape one of the accused.
Giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court yesterday Marie Mulhall said her sister Charlotte came to her in tears and told her of her involvement in the death of Farah Swaleh Noor, who had been dating their mother.
She said that Charlotte Mulhall claimed the attack happened after the deceased tried to rape her sister and co-accused, Linda.
Both Charlotte, aged 23, and Linda, aged 31, from Kilcare Gardens in Tallaght have pleaded not guilty to the murder of a man known as Farah Swaleh Noor (also known as Sheilila Salim) at Richmond Cottages, Ballybough, on March 20th last year.
Marie Mulhall, an apprentice mechanic, told Mr George Birmingham SC, prosecuting, that she had not seen her mother for some time, but she knew she had been in a relationship with Mr Noor who she had met once, four or five years ago.
At some time in March 2005 she said her sister Charlotte had come to her room at the family home in Tallaght.
She said: “Charlotte was very upset. I’d just come in from work and she came to my room crying. I asked what was wrong with her. She appeared to be drunk. She told me she was upset because they were after killing Farah.”
Asked what her immediate reaction to this was she said: “I didn’t believe it.”
She added: “She told me it was herself and Linda. She didn’t say too much about my mother but I knew my mother had been there. I just let her tell me what she was saying.
“Charlotte and her had been in the chipper and they came in the apartment where they found Farah trying to rape my sister Linda. Charlotte tried to get Farah off and he turned on her.”
Marie Mulhall said her sister Charlotte told her the body had been cut and dumped in the canal, but did not tell her which canal it was.
Asked by George Birmingham if she continued to disbelieve her sister’s story she said: “I didn’t believe her at all until I heard it on the radio that a body had been taken from the canal.”
The next the witness said she heard of the case, was when she got a call from a neighbour to tell her that her two sisters and both her parents Kathleen and John Mulhall had been arrested on suspicion of murder.
At a later date again, in August, the witness said her sister Linda had met with the Gardaí.
She said: “Later that evening Linda came home and told me she was after telling the guards where the head was. She didn’t tell be the place.”
Asked by Ms Isobel Kennedy SC for Charlotte Mulhall about a statement from the Gardaí, which suggested the conversation she had with her sister Charlotte was in the bathroom of the house and not in the bedroom, she said: “That could be a misprint. I know the conversation took place in my bedroom.”
Ms Kennedy put it to her that her client had never said what the witness was alleging, but Marie Mulhall replied: “I disagree with that.”
Another witness, who counsel for both sides asked not to be identified to protect her privacy, said she had had a son by the deceased after meeting him at Dr Quirkies amusement arcade on O’Connell Street where she was playing pool.
The Chinese woman told Mr Birmingham SC that they had played two games of pool before Mr Noor asked her back to his apartment.
There she said: “He tried to do something on me. He tried to do something, make sex to me.”
Asked if she had wanted that to happen she said: “No, he forced me to do it.”
She said she had become pregnant because of the incident. In earlier evidence the Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis said his examination of the body, which was later identified as that of Mr Noor, showed it had been dismembered after death and had 22 stab wounds- twenty to the front of the body and two to the back.
The wounds had caused injury to the heart, stomach, liver, lungs and one kidney. During dismemberment he said the soft tissue of the body had been cut “relatively cleanly” but the bones had been severed “relatively clumsily by repeated chipping from an instrument such as an axe or a cleaver.”
He noted the head and neck had not been recovered and the penis had also been amputated. He said there was no evidence of any defensive injuries to the hands.
He recorded the probable cause of death as penetrative wounds to the trunk of the body, but he said he had not been in a position to take into account the significance or otherwise of any injuries to the head.
Detective Inspector Christopher Mangan yesterday began giving evidence of a statement made by the accused Linda Mulhall to him in August 2005. “She said Charlotte had cut Farah’s throat and she had hit him with a hammer.”
He said Linda Mulhall was crying during the statement, and had tears streaming down her face. He said: “I knew it was an emotional time for her but she indicated she wanted to talk to us.”
He said Ms Mulhall had become happier and more content as she told them about the events that took place and the effect that the crime had had on her: “She couldn’t get the thoughts of it out of her mind.”
Det Insp Mangan is due to resume his evidence today when the trial resumes before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of six men and six women.
