The Irish Scissor Sisters (34 page)

The couple moved back to Dublin on 14 September 2004. They told people they’d left Cork because they had been targeted by an IRA man who didn’t like Farah because he was black, but there is absolutely no evidence of this. When they arrived they got off the Dublin bus and headed straight for the Asylum Seeker Unit at 77 Upper Gardiner Street, seeking assistance to find accommodation. They were interviewed by Community Welfare Officer Derek O’Connor who arranged a room for them at the Mountainview Bed and Breakfast at 2 Killakee Way, in Firhouse. The couple were told that this accommodation was only temporary, for a maximum of two weeks and the onus was on them to find a permanent home. Mountainview guesthouse was exclusively for foreign nationals who were referred there by the Northern Area Health Board. It is not a long-term residence and most people housed there only remain for a few days.

Kathleen was already in receipt of unemployment benefit and Farah also requested funds from Officer O’Connor but as Farah had left the FÁS course by his own choice he was not entitled to full dole payments. This was explained to him and he was given cash from an Emergency Need Fund instead. It was agreed that he would sign-on as a dependent of Kathleen. From October the Health Board started paying Kathleen €234 each week, on the basis that she was married to Farah. Noor wasn’t very happy with this situation. He was always anxious to get his cash quickly and wanted to be paid his money independently of Kathleen. There was nothing he could do, however, and the couple went to Tallaght to the B&B run by Mary Andrews and owned by Niall Hade. Mountainview has eight bedrooms and there were fourteen people living there when Farah and Kathleen arrived. The couple were placed in Room 3.

When Kathleen went to Mary Andrews on 10 October, requesting a transfer because she was afraid of Farah, the manager contacted Officer O’Connor. Arrangements were made to move Kathleen to Lismore B&B in Drumcondra, which is run by Hanji Bob and her husband Catalin.

Two or three days later Kathleen called in to the Health Board offices because they wanted to speak to her about her claim. Officer O’Connor noticed that she was shaken and appeared to be very nervous. She was not nearly as confident as she had appeared when she was there with Farah. The community welfare officer assured her that Noor would not be able to get her new address and she seemed to relax on hearing this. While Kathleen was still living in Drumcondra, she met Derek O’Connor again. She told him that she had bumped into her boyfriend on the street one day and that Farah now knew where she was living. Kathleen’s claims that she lived in fear of Noor were clearly lies, however, as she had told Hanji Bob that she had a Somalian boyfriend named Farah. On one occasion Bob had also heard Noor and Kathleen having an argument in her bedroom.

Farah Noor also left the Mountainview B&B in early October, at around the same time as Kathleen. He frequently returned to the guesthouse to collect his post and called out around St Patrick’s Day, just before the murder. Mary Andrews remembers that Farah was often dressed in his Ireland-away jersey and during one visit to collect his post she said ‘fair play to you’ because he was supporting the Irish soccer team. When she heard that the body found in the canal had the same jersey on, she thought about Farah and hoped it wasn’t him.

After leaving the guesthouse Farah re-registered with Adecco Recruitment. He returned to work at Excell Sydney Coopers again on 7 October 2004. He stayed there until 28 January 2005, when his temporary contract expired.

On 25 February he started another job with Schmitt ECS, who are based on the Hewlett Packard site in Leixlip, Co. Kildare, and was still employed there when he died. Farah last attended work on 16 March and didn’t bother turning up on the final few days he was alive. He didn’t ring in sick, to either the company or Adecco, and this was noted on his permanent record at the recruitment agency.

Farah’s pay was lodged into his AIB account in Cork and his payslips were sent to the Mountainview B&B. He seemed to use it as a semi-permanent postal address, even though he no longer lived there. His wages for the week ending 20 March 2005 were paid into his account five days later. They amounted to €157.42 for the three days he had worked that week. The staff at Adecco remember Noor as being of medium height and build, with ‘watery eyes and a runny nose’. He always wore ‘casual gear, but trendy and he was always clean’. He wore a gold band on his wedding finger and always had a Manchester United ring on his middle finger. He wore two or three other rings on his right hand.

Adecco sent Noor’s P45 to Mountainview on 22 March but he never received it. Mary Andrews wrote ‘return, gone away’ on the letter but forgot to put it back in the post. Community Welfare Officer Derek O’Connor liased with Adecco about Noor’s work record and all the reports he received back were satisfactory. Mr O’Connor always thought that Noor looked scruffy, as if he was homeless. He said he had been in his office between four and eight times, from September 2004 until February 2005, and was never clean.

The last time Farah Swaleh Noor made contact with the Health Board was on 11 March 2005. His payments had risen to €148.80 a week from 24 February and he was also given Supplementary Social Welfare Allowance. This was pending a claim he was making for Unemployment Assistance, as he had filled out a provision for Unemployment Assistance form on 24 February. He used to collect his money every Thursday in Gardiner Street.

With their money sorted out, all Farah and Kathleeen had to do now was find somewhere to live and they’d be set up. Kathleen Mulhall answered an advert looking for tenants and moved into Flat 1, 17 Richmond Cottages in Ballybough on 1 December 2004. The landlord, John Tobin, later said that he often saw Charlotte around as well and thought she lived there for a while. Kathleen told him that her daughter was interested in one of the flats but later rang him to say that she changed her mind.

Farah and Kathleen quickly settled back into life in Dublin and Kathleen started to rebuild her relationship with her family. She frequently saw Linda and Charlotte and regularly went to visit her sons, John and James, in prison. Farah also reacquainted himself with other Africans living in Dublin. After a few weeks it was almost like they had never left the capital.

The couple invited Farah’s friend Ali Suleiman Abdulaziz over to Richmond Cottages on Christmas Eve 2004. Ali had been one of the first people to greet the couple when they came back from Cork. Charlotte was also there that evening and they had a good night, enjoying some food and a few drinks. Ali later told gardaí how Farah used to jokingly refer to Kathleen as his mother and how ‘he used to make a joke of it but I think he used to love that woman and she used to love him’. Farah made sure that Ali, Kathleen and Charlotte had enough food and drink before he went off to work as a security guard that evening. He produced a small bottle of Hennessy Brandy and some cigarettes and gave them to the women to have while he was gone. Ali said that this type of thing was typical of Farah and that he was generous.

Farah Noor’s mind, however, was troubled in the weeks before his death. He would confide in Ali that he was scared but he wouldn’t go into details about why. His friend said he ‘used to give him advice not too drink too much; he drank too much, to be honest. And I said to stay away from people who take drugs’.

The couple had not been getting on and Noor had asked several people to keep their eyes open for any free accommodation because he was thinking of leaving Kathleen and moving out of Richmond Cottages. Some residents at Richmond Cottages reported more shouting and fighting than usual. It was clear that the couple were not getting on well and were coming to the end of their violent and tempestuous relationship. Farah undoubtedly beat Kathleen and, if her story can be believed, which is doubtful, had threatened to kill her and cut her up into pieces not long before he died. Kathleen told the gardaí that she was afraid of Farah but there is evidence that he was equally scared of her. In the months before he was murdered Farah had phoned his mother, Somoe Bakari Shigoo, and told her that he would have to get a knife for his own protection because Kathleen had threatened to kill him. A lot of people also came forward to say that they had seen Farah with bruises on his face and that Kathleen was no shrinking violet. She was well able to fight back and give as good as she got.

Farah’s mother was very concerned and sent her son a gift a parcel of clothes. Farah rang her four days later to make sure that she had posted it. On 10 March Farah’s cousin, rang Kathleen to see if the package had arrived but she said that Farah had walked out on her.

The last call that Farah made to his mother was some time around the middle of March. Somoe said it was a very strange call and her son was upset, confused and rambling, which was not like him. She felt that it was as if he was saying a final goodbye to her and was apologising for all the mistakes that he had made in his life.

Farah was in a dark place and kept referring to the son he’d had with the Chinese woman ‘Lynn’.

St. Patrick’s Day 2005, like many others in the lives of Kathleen and Farah, was spent on the beer. They started drinking early in the Parnell Mooney pub, on Parnell Street, with Farah in his ever-present Ireland-away jersey. There was a ballad session taking place to mark the day and all the customers were in good spirits. Christian Silva was in the same pub with his friends, ‘Kenyan’ Ali and Sam. They all moved to the downstairs bar because it was so packed in the main upstairs lounge. Silva had gone to the bar and ordered a pint of Guinness when he heard a woman call his name. He didn’t recognise her but she came over and said, ‘You remember me.’ She said she had met him upstairs in the bar before. The woman was Kathleen Mulhall.

A black man came in after her and Christian thought he was from Nigeria. Farah Noor started being aggressive and shouted at him: ‘Why do you talk to my girlfriend?’

Christian didn’t want any trouble and replied: ‘You ask her.’

Farah pulled a pair of nail cutters from his trouser pocket and punched Silva under the left eye with them. He went to hit him again but Silva caught his hand and Noor got a cut to the head in the ensuing struggle.

Christian went back to his two friends and they brought him to the toilet because his eye was bleeding.

A bouncer saw what had happened and rushed over and threw Noor out. Kathleen, however, stayed in the pub.

After Christian had cleaned his eye up, the bouncer asked him if he wanted the guards called. Silva said no and went down to the small garda office on O’Connell Street instead and told Garda David O’Leary that he had been assaulted. Garda Patrick Buckley from Store Street Station was on mobile patrol in a van when he received a call to go to the garda office. Christian Silva agreed to go back to the Parnell Mooney with the gardaí and point out the man that had assaulted him.

Silva and Garda Buckley drove the short distance to Parnell Street and saw two men standing outside the pub having a cigarette. Silva said that the man wearing the long-sleeved Ireland jersey had attacked him and the black man identified himself as Farah Swaleh Noor. The other smoker was an Irish man, Michael Dunne from Ballymun, who had joined Farah for a cigarette. Dunne had witnessed the row and asked Farah if he was OK and they had got talking.

Garda Buckley explained to Noor that an allegation had been made that he had assaulted a man but Farah said nothing.

Michael Dunne then identified himself and gave the officer his mobile number. He told the garda that the row wasn’t Farah’s fault.

At this stage, Farah Noor said he didn’t know his own phone number but that his girlfriend was still in the pub and she had it. Garda Buckley decided not to go looking for Noor’s partner and took Christian Silva back to O’Connell Street as he did not have to go to hospital and was not badly injured. He dropped him off and went back to the garda office and gave the details to Garda O’Leary for further investigation.

Meanwhile Michael Dunne went back inside the Parnell Mooney and told Kathleen that she had better go outside because her husband had nearly been arrested. She left and joined Noor who was still waiting. Kathleen wasn’t happy that her night had been ruined and started for home in a huff. Farah followed her and barely spoke for the rest of the night.

Between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. that same night, Farah’s friend Ibrahim Mohamed met the couple. They were both extremely drunk and Farah was bleeding heavily from a nasty gash to his head. Kathleen was trying to get her boyfriend home and they only stopped and spoke briefly. Ibrahim vaguely knew the couple from Cork because they had lived in a flat next door to his friend and had been to a few of the same parties. He subsequently told gardaí: ‘Farah would talk too much with drink. He would fight. Farah wouldn’t say much when he was sober but he would talk a lot when he was drunk. I didn’t really listen to him when he was drunk.’

Relations between Farah and Kathleen were very strained. The couple had spent the previous night drinking in the same pub at a reggae night and according to witnesses were also quite drunk that night. Farah continued drinking for the next two days and didn’t turn up for work as scheduled. He was on an almighty bender and immediately started drinking cans when he woke up on 20 March.

Kathleen told him she was meeting her two daughters in town and asked if he wanted to come. He said he would. It could be a good opportunity to make up for the last few days and the fight on Paddy’s night. He got dressed and headed towards O’Connell Street, hand-in-hand with Kathleen. Maybe they could work through their problems after all.