Sisters Linda and Charlotte Mulhall launched the horror attack 20 years ago on Farah Swaleh Noor – whose body was found floating in a canal with his head and penis chopped off and never recovered
A murder duo dubbed the “Scissor Sisters” comitted one of the most “grotesque” killings ever seen in Ireland – after chopping off the head and penis of their mum’s boyfriend and dumping his body in a canal.
Sisters Linda and Charlotte Mulhall launched the horror attack 20 years ago on their mother Kathleen’s boyfriend, Farah Swaleh Noor, 40 – whose mutilated body was found floating in the Royal Canal in Dublin in March 2005. Detective Garda Daniel Kenna said of the case at the time: “I have worked on a lot of murders and murder is murder but in this circumstance, the fact that the body was mutilated in the way it was after the killing, and the fact that it was done by women made it particularly gruesome.”
The murder happened around St Patrick’s weekend in March 2005 after a drugs and booze binge involving the sisters. Noor, who was married with two kids and reportedly had a history of violence against women including allegations of rape, was also involved in the partying.
He was living with Linda and Charlotte’s mum Kathleen in Dublin at the time, with the mum reportedly ending up in hospital on multiple occasions, including once with fractured ribs, the Irish Mirror reports. The depraved murder, believed to have taken place on March 20, was sparked by Charlotte and Linda claiming Noor tried to rape one of them.
They reportedly spent the day drinking and taking ecstasy before Charlotte stabbed the dad 27 times with a Stanley knife, while Linda struck him with a claw hammer. The dead man’s head and penis were then chopped off and never found. The siblings reportedly spent hours on the bathroom floor cutting up Noor’s body into chunks before placing them in plastic bags.
They then dumped his limbs and torso into the canal before boarding a bus to Tallaght in southwest Dublin, with the victim’s head concealed and reportedly hidden before it was moved again. Kathleen meanwhile helped clean the crime scene. Ten days later, Noor’s leg, with a sock still attached, was seen floating in the canal.
Judge Paul Carney later described the crime as “the most grotesque killing that has ever occurred” in his professional career.
Former Detective Superintendent Frank Keenaghan added: “This was a particularly gruesome and shocking crime and certainly everybody was aware of it. It was the talk of the country that this person should be murdered, stabbed, dismembered, and then the body part gotten rid of. And then when you look at it in the cold light of day, they’re on the bus with the head, or having breakfast.”
Despite Noor’s violent past involving women, Keenaghan said the way he died could never be justified, adding: “There are ways of dealing with people and while he may have provoked Linda, she certainly could have gone to the guards and made a complaint and he would have, more than likely, been incarcerated. But to die in the manner he did, and to be dismembered the way he was, no human being deserves that.”
Charlotte was handed a life sentence for murder, while Linda was convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Kathleen was meanwhile given five years for impeding the investigation by concealing evidence. Charlotte Mulhall remains in prison and is the country’s longest serving female inmate.
She reportedly enjoys education, fitness classes, and has even been dubbed a “model prisoner” after “cleaning up her act” during her incarceration – but has been involved in controversies.
A chilling image of Charlotte smiling while holding a large knife to a male inmate’s throat was leaked in 2008, sparking questions about why male and female prisoners were mixing, and how Charlotte got access to the large blade.
In 2014, she was accused of being in an “inappropriate sexual relationship” with a male staff member, and was reportedly found with alcohol in her cell. Just one year later, it was reported she was put in segregation after using heated hair tongs to burn the back of a fellow inmate, as reported in the Irish Independent.
Charlotte also reportedly teamed up with Linda to run a hair and beauty salon called Head And Shoulders – believed to be a warped reference to how they hacked their victim’s body. Now in Limerick, recent reports have painted her in a more favourable light, with a source telling the Irish Mirror in 2023: “She is no trouble at all and spends most of her time doing school and fitness classes. She just wants to get out and get on with her life.”
Linda was released in 2018 at the age of 43 having served her time for manslaughter. After being approached by reporters, she told them: “I just want to get on with living my life. I don’t want to be giving any story.”
Mum-of-three Kathleen has however given some insight to the media, hinting at fractions between her and Linda. After her daughter was released, she said: “I’m tired. I really am. Sometimes I just think I don’t want to wake up anymore but then when Linda came out of prison it gave me a bit of hope to want to live again, but there was no contact from her. She wouldn’t even answer a message that I sent her.”
Despite the broken relationship, she appears to have a closer bond with Charlotte. She said in a different interview: “I only talk with Charlotte. She is my life. She is my only child and Andrew is my only son.”
Linda, who developed an interest in beauty therapy in prison, was later praised by her daughter, Nikita Mulhall, for removing “a dirty rapist off the streets”. Writing on Facebook, she said: “Boils my blood no one will ever know the true story to what happened. If he was in prison and the three of them were in the ground, how much different would it have been?” She also added: “Then the night it happened, he messes with the wrong woman – he wasn’t getting away with raping another woman that night.”
Linda was believed to have moved to the UK after leaving prison and a source told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “It’s believed Linda tried to get a number to Charlotte recently in prison to contact her on.”
“It was an English number which suggests she’s over in the UK. There was speculation when she was first released that she would not stay in Ireland as she was too recognisable and would get hassled by the public. By all accounts she was a model prisoner when she was in jail and just wants to start over and get on with her life.”
“It’s understood she was madly in love with a former prison officer who she really fell for but that didn’t last so she had no reason to stay in Ireland. Linda was very close to Charlotte while locked up so people found it strange she hadn’t been to visit her. However, Linda giving her a contact number is a clear indication she wants to get in touch and find out how her sister is.”
