SCISSOR SISTERS mum Kathleen Mulhall has apologised to the family of her
former lover for covering up his murder. In an exclusive interview with the
Sunday World just days after completing a five-year jail term for her part in
the gruesome murder of Farah Swaleh Noor, Mulhall has begged his family for
forgiveness.

The 56-year-old says she is "truly sorry" for what her two
daughters did to Noor and says she feels terrible that they are living a life
of poverty in Kenya. However, the wife of Farah Noor has slammed the apology
and says she is "very sad" that Kathleen has been freed and believes
she should have served a far longer sentence because she did not tell the truth
about Farah's slaying.

On March 20, 2005 Linda and Charlotte decided to go out for the day.
Linda’s father John took her children for her for the day so she could have
some time out. The sister went to Dublin’s city centre to meet their mother and
her partner for a few drinks. They all met up and went to Dublin boardwalk, a
notorious spot for drinking and drugs. Kathleen and Noor continued to drink and
Linda and Charlotte took ecstasy tablets. Kathleen wanted to know what the
girls had taken and asked if she could have one.

After they returned to Richmond cottages where Kathleen lived with Noor.
Kathleen then took an ecstasy tablet which was given to her by Linda and
crushed another and put it into Noor’s drink. The tablet seemed to have little
effect on Noor and Kathleen crushed another one for him.

The ecstasy did not seem to affect Noor the same way it did the Mulhall
women, but he did seem to have heightened sexual arousal. Noor became
more sexually suggestive towards Linda and touched her on several occasions.
The bedsit was small and the four were sitting together on a small couch and
armchair.

Charlotte was sitting on the arm of the couch and could see the advances of
Noor towards her sister. Charlotte told Noor to stop touching her sister but
Noor persisted. In the midst of all the tension and raised voices Kathleen
Mulhall told her daughters to “just kill him or he will kill me”.

In a statement she made to detectives, Linda maintains that Charlotte
attacked Noor while trying to protect her. Charlotte took a Stanley knife and
drove it into Noor’s neck, causing severe damage. Noor staggered and Charlotte
plunged the knife into him again, causing him to fall and hit his head.

At this point Linda had been given a hammer by her mother and she also
attacked Noor, striking him several times over the head with it. Charlotte by
then had a bread knife which she repeatedly stabbed Noor with and forensic
examinations showed that he had been stabbed 21 times.

Charlotte, in her interviews which were later read out in court, claimed her
mother handed the sisters the knife and hammer to kill Noor.

In their drug induced frenzy, the sisters spent up to five hours in the
bathroom cutting up Noor, packing his body parts in black bags. They then
dumped these bags in the Royal Canal. The body was found 10 days later when the
torso was seen floating in the canal with only an Ireland Jersey covering
it. Other body parts were recovered and it was only when an acquaintance
of Noor’s recognised the jersey that the gardaí were able to identify Noor.
The case was known as the torso in the canal case and the sisters were dubbed
the “Scissor Sisters” by the media.

In the sensational trial that followed, Charlotte Mulhall was jailed for
life for his murder while her sister Linda was hit with a 15-year term for
manslaughter. Kathleen, who cleaned up the murder scene and disposed of the
weapons, got 5 years.

In her first ever interview, Mulhall was full of remorse and struggling to
hold back tears said: "I am truly sorry for his wife and family in Kenya.
I knew his mother and they are nice people. I never meant for all this to
happen.

"I loved Farah and I still miss him. I know it must be difficult for
them over there and feel for them and I am honestly very sorry".

Her two daughters told gardai that Kathleen pleaded with them to kill Farah
because he was abusing her but the granny didn't want to dwell on the night of
one of the most notorious murders in Irish history.

She said: "I am very sorry for what I did but I just want to try to get
on with my life and put it all behind me.

"I have served my time and want to move on and try to forget what
happened and hope I will be allowed to do that."

Her two daughters disowned Kathleen after she went on the run in September
2005 and left them to take the rap for the murder. She subsequently made up
with her daughters after she surrendered and was jailed.

Although the glamorous granny is clearly delighted to be living a free life
for the first time in years, the family of Swaleh Noor are furious that she was
set free two weeks before her official release date.

Husna Mohammed Said told the Sunday World this week: "I am very sorry
and sad that Kathleen has got out early. She is a wicked woman and deserved to
spend more time in jail because she never told the truth of what happened to
Farah."

Farah Noor regularly sent money to his wife, mother and three children in
Kenya. But since his murder, the family has been in extreme financial hardship.
Kathleen was involved in a five-year relationship with Noor before his death.

In a previous interview with this newspaper, Husna revealed how Farah's son
wanted to confront Kathleen in Ireland and ask her why his daddy was killed.
The family did not qualify for a visa to come here though.

Husna said: "I hate Kathleen and I want to sue her.

"She can't run away just like that. Wherever she is, she will never be
comfortable for the rest of her life. Allah will never forgive."

Farah Noor arrived in Ireland in December 1996, claiming to
be a Somalian called Sheilila Salim whose family had been killed in Mogadishu.
Subsequent investigations revealed that he was in fact Kenyan and that his
family was still alive. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
ordered that he be deported but he appealed and was granted citizenship in
March 1999 on grounds he became the father of an Irish-born child. He had four
previous convictions for offences including intoxication, threatening and
abusive behaviour and assault. In 1997, he raped a mentally disabled 16
year-old Chinese girl. She later gave birth to a son. Two other women had
children by him and both described having been raped by him. Noor had faced
eight charges of disorder and assault, one involving a sexual assault in which
a knife was found at the scene by gardaí. He was convicted on three occasions
but never served time in jail. Noor lived in a number of areas in Dublin,
including Dun Laoghaire and Firhouse, as well as the inner city before moving
in with Kathleen Mulhall. Gardaí described him as being particularly violent
towards women.