Mother begged daughters to kill boyfriend, court hears
The younger of two Dublin sisters accused of murdering and chopping up their mother’s boyfriend told gardaí that their mother told them “please just kill him for me", and gave them a knife and hammer, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Charlotte Mulhall (aged 23) and her sister Linda (aged 31), both of Kilcare Gardens, Tallaght have each denied the murder of a man known as Farah Swaleh Noor (otherwise known as Sheilila Salim) at their mother’s flat at Richmond Cottages, Ballybough on March 20 last year.
His headless and dismembered body was found floating in the Royal Canal ten days later.
Detective Sergeant Gerard McDonnell told Mr George Birmingham SC prosecuting that he had taken a statement from Charlotte Mulhall on October 17 last year.
In the statement which was read out to the jury, Charlotte initially denied that she had been at the flat at the time of the killing and said she and Linda had been drinking “all over town” that night from 10pm until 5 or 6am the next morning, when she came home to find her mother Kathleen covered in blood.
She said at first she thought her mother had been assaulted by the deceased, but then her mother said she had killed him with a hammer and by cutting his throat, before chopping up his body.
Asked about her sister’s earlier statements to gardaí in which Linda had confessed to the killing she said: “I just think Linda is mad for saying things she didn’t do.”
Asked why she had said this she said: “Because we promised my ma we would say we did it.”
She said her mother had threatened to kill herself if she went to prison. However later in the interview when she was asked what happened, Charlotte said: “Everything that Linda said.”
Det Sgt McDonnell said she cried and agreed she loved her sister and had wanted to protect her.
She said Mr Noor had made threats to her mother: “She just told me he kept saying to her I’m going to kill you before the year is up.”
She said her, her sister and her mother had been drinking and taking ‘ecstasy’ at the flat.
“Farah didn’t want to take E but my mother crushed up an E and put it in his drink and said he’ll be on the same buzz as us.”
She said Farah then started saying things to Linda and would not let her go. She said: “It was something like we’re two creatures or something similar.”
Everyone was arguing and she said: “Ma kept saying to me and Linda please just kill him for me then she got the hammer and the knife and she gave them to me and Linda, but he wouldn’t let Linda go and I cut him on the neck.”
Det Sgt McDonnell said Charlotte had indicated the side of her neck in the interview and told him: “It was just a blade or a knife, I don’t remember.”
She said Linda was hitting him with a hammer. Asked who stabbed him she said: “I don’t remember everything that happened” but she said she remembered stabbing him in the neck and having a knife.
After he died she said the three women did not know what to do with him. She couldn’t remember if they had rung anyone or not and she told gardaí: “Me mammy said just cut him up.”
She said she and her sister then cut him up in the bathroom of the flat. “I just remember cutting. I cut him up with the knife.”
She said she used a kitchen knife whilst her sister had a hammer. She said she could not remember who cut off the victim’s head and penis, both of which have never been found.
She said the head had been brought by all three of them to a park in Tallaght, before her sister Linda moved it again.
During an earlier statement Charlotte Mulhall also described taking the body parts down to the canal where they were disposed of.
She said they had used three big sports bags to transport the body down to the canal. The arms and the legs had been in her bag which she emptied out into the canal.
Detective Garda Kevin Keys who said he had been present at the taking of that earlier statement agreed with Ms Isobel Kennedy, for Charlotte Mulhall, that her client had become increasingly upset as the interview went on and it was often difficult to hear what she was saying.
He agreed she was very protective of her sister Linda and had indicated that her mother told her not to say anything.
At the conclusion of today’s court hearing Ms Kennedy said: “Ms Charlotte Mulhall feels she’s going to be ill,” and the trial was adjourned.
Det Sgt McDonnell is expected to continue his evidence today tomorrow when trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of six men and six women.
