The Irish Scissor Sisters (47 page)

The women in the Dóchas Centre certainly seem to enjoy life there, and there have been dozens of occasions where woman have pleaded to stay there after completing their sentences. The relaxed regime belies the fact that many of the inmates are serious criminals with long and chequered histories. Some 25 per cent of inmates are serving sentences for murder, manslaughter or conspiracy to murder, while 21 per cent have been sentenced for possession of drugs for sale or supply. A further 28 per cent are doing time for offences such as robbery, theft and criminal damage.

Despite the serious nature of the crimes, there are relatively few security incidents at the prison. A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said of the Dóchas Centre: ‘Most of our long-term prisoners we don’t have any problems with at all. They know they are in for the long haul. They just put their heads down and get on with their lives. They generally get involved in a lot of the training and education programmes too. They need to do things to fill their days. It’s the remand prisoners who are usually the most volatile. We get to know our long-term prisoners very well; we know their personalities. For the women who are here long-term, the worst thing you can do is nothing.’

Linda finally exhausted all legal avenues in July 2010 when the Court of Criminal Appeal delivered its verdict on her appeal against her conviction and sentence. Linda’s legal team had gone back to court to argue that Mr Justice Paul Carney should not have sentenced her without reading the full psychological report on her, which had not been completed when she was first convicted. The three-judge appeal court said in its judgement:

While this was somewhat critical of Judge Carney, the court determined that the eighteen-year sentence handed to Mulhall, with the final three suspended, was appropriate given the nature of her crime. As to whether she had been provoked by Noor’s behaviour on the night, it was ruled that this had been accepted by the jury in the original trial, hence her being convicted of manslaughter and not murder, like Charlotte. This ruling meant that once and for all Linda had to accept that she would serve at least ten years behind bars. Prison sources said she was not overly surprised at the outcome and took it quite well.

In October 2010 the brutal case of the Scissor Sisters and Farah Noor was brought to the small screen by TV3 reporter Dyane Connor, who presented the
24 hours to Kill
series. Professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, David Wilson, gave Connor an interview in which he said he believes the drink- and drug-fuelled crime would have given the sisters terrible nightmares. ‘It’s a journey into a dark side of the human psyche. I’ve no doubt that both Linda and Charlotte still think about what happened on that night and probably still have nightmares about it. This is clearly a murder that takes place after the sisters have been using drink and especially drugs for a long and sustained period of time. Without doubt the alcohol and drug abuse distorts the way they think about events. It’s that context … that gives the power to this particular murder,’ Professor Wilson said.

Wilson was especially struck by how Linda Mulhall had struggled to come to terms with the horrible crime she had committed. ‘The most successful murderers I’ve dealt with have been able to compartmentalise their feelings after the death. They can commit horrific crimes and do horrific things to their victims but then put that into a box, metaphorically, and park it. They leave it somewhere and return to their normal lives. Linda seems to have been unable to do that. What was in that box leaked out constantly.’

There was a sea-change in conditions at Mountjoy Prison after the long-serving governor John Lonergan retired in July 2010. He was replaced by the tough, no-nonsense Ned Whelan. Whelan had been the governor of the country’s highest-security jail – Midlands Prison, in Portlaoise – and was used to dealing with tough criminals. He would not be intimidated, despite threats to his life soon after he arrived in Mountjoy. Whereas Lonergan refused to install nets in the exercise yards to make it more difficult for people to throw in drugs to the prisoners, Whelan immediately adopted a zero-tolerance approach to illegal drugs and sanctioned sophisticated anti-drugs nets. This led to several violent confrontations, with large groups of prisoners unhappy that they could no longer get easy access to narcotics as they had been doing for years. As well as targeting prisoners, Whelan also introduced mandatory searches for staff to prevent rogue officers from acting as drug dealers while being paid a good wage by the Prison Service.

In March 2011 it was reported that Linda Mulhall had become a grandmother at the tender age of thirty-four. The report claimed that Linda’s son had become a dad two years previously when he was just sixteen years old. The report was never confirmed, but if it is true, it would mean that Kathleen Mulhall would have become great-grandmother at just fifty-four years of age, which may be some sort of record, although not one that most people would brag about.

In March 2011, on the sixth anniversary of the murder, this author again spoke to Farah Noor’s family in Kenya. The dead man’s son Mohamed Said was now nineteen years old. In the years since the brutal killing of his father, Mohamed had developed into a very promising swimmer and had represented his district. His mother, Husna, revealed how her son wanted to confront the Mulhall girls and beg them to reveal where Farah’s head was. She said she blamed Kathleen Mulhall for what happened and that she hopes she rots in hell. ‘My son would like to go to Ireland to talk to Kathleen. He wants her to look him in the eye and tell him she is sorry for his father and want to ask why was he killed. When Kathleen sees Mohamed, she will think it is Farah. They look very alike. I hate Kathleen; she is sick. She ruined her life and her family’s life and also the life of my family. I hope she is never happy for the rest of her life and pays for what she did.’

Husna revealed how she cannot find peace knowing some of her husband’s mutilated body parts have never been found. ‘I want Kathleen to say where Farah’s belongings are. He stayed in Ireland for ten years but there was nothing left of him, not even a T-shirt. I want to know where they went. I wish I could have Farah back to be buried in Kenya, but he is in pieces now and is in a grave in Ireland. Of course I would like Farah’s head and all of Farah’s body back, but I wouldn’t like to see him like that because he was my husband and I would feel bad.’

Husna also said she felt let down by the Irish State because the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal had still not paid her any compensation. She said it had been fifteen months since she’s last heard from them and it was four years since she had made her initial application. The forty-year-old mother said, ‘I don’t understand why it has taken so long. Farah was killed nearly six years ago and we filled out all the papers and the last ones were done fifteen months ago. We have heard nothing since.

‘I have a son and daughter in high school here and have no money since Farah died. I work as a waitress in a restaurant but the salary is low. I was told by the authorities that my family would be compensated, but nothing has happened and we have been left abandoned. I rang a detective who worked on the case but he said he was retired and could do nothing to help. I feel abandoned and cannot survive without this money I was told I was going to receive. Farah sent his family money every month and our lives are very hard since this stopped.’

Husna also revealed how the kindness of ordinary Muslims in Mombasa. ‘Farah’s mother gives us money and the local Muslim community also supports us because the children are orphans. When Farah died I had to stay indoors for over three months under Sharia law and could not leave the house while I was mourning my husband. I could not work or earn any money, so local people gave us money to help us live and [they] still do.’

Husna’s frustration was obvious and it was clear that she and her family were struggling to make ends meet. ‘I don’t understand why it has taken so long. The gardaí have told me I am entitled to this money but still I hear nothing. All the paperwork is done, so I pray that I get it soon,’ she added.