Free The Torso in the Canal by John Mooney Page B

scene of a murder cling to most surfaces.
    As a precautionary measure, Mangan sent a forensic team to the flat to take swabs from various locations in the room. If there were traces of blood, these could be matched against samples taken from the body parts, and Noor’s son. These swabs were taken on 26 May.
    Blood speckles are invisible to the naked eye, however, they can be seen if a chemical called luminal—a powdery compound made up of nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and carbon—is used to reveal their existence. Samples of the blood particles found at the scene were taken for comparison with those taken from the torso.
     
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    Meanwhile, Kathleen continued to enquire about Noor’s whereabouts in a desperate attempt to convince others that she thought he was alive. Her rationale was simple; if she knew he was dead, why would she have continued to search for him?
    On 23 May, in what can only be described as a bizarre encounter, she approached Dermot Farrelly, a community Welfare Officer, who worked out of offices on Upper Gardiner Street. He later made a statement which read:
    ‘Kathleen Mulhall came into the office and I spoke to her at the counter. She was by herself. She was worried about Farah Swaleh Noor. She didn’t know his whereabouts. She was asking me to tell her from the records on file if we knew where Farah was, if we had any address for him. She wanted to know if we knew if he was alright. I told her that we weren’t in a position to give out information to her. She then said that Farah might be using his real name. She said she didn’t know how to spell the name but it was Sheila Swaleh, Shagu. That’s how she pronounced the name.
    ‘She wasn’t clear on the exact pronunciation. I have put variations of the name into the system but there is no match that is similar to the name at all on our computer files.’
     
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    The detective team had become deeply interested in their relationship. Working methodically, the team began to build a picture of the life they led. Kathleen was the victim of sustained and repeated violence at Noor’s hands. This was later documented in her own statements but also in interviews from people who knew her. Why she continued to remain with him is open to conjecture.
    The relationship between Noor and Kathleen was fraught with violence. Noor was a highly volatile and aggressive individual and this condition was exacerbated by his excessive drinking.
    Reports prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions on the case would later state that she was ‘hospitalised on umpteen occasions as a result of beatings she received from the deceased.’
    In fact, anyone who met the couple, even socially, couldn’t help but notice the violence Noor dispensed on her. At one point, the team were even told that she may have given premature birth and lost a child as a result of a beating. However, gardaí found no evidence to support this allegation and Kathleen later denied that it ever happened.
    In truth, the relationship went wrong from the start. The two had first met around 2002. It was an illicit one as Kathleen was still married. Regardless, she left the family home in Kilclare Gardens and moved to Cork with Noor, where they lived in rented accommodation in Glanmire.
    Things went from bad to worse in Cork. Witnesses would later recall how Noor was always very abusive towards Kathleen, although one remarked that ‘she could give as good as she got.’
    Barry Sheehan, who came across the pair, would make a statement:
    ‘He was extremely violent. When he was sober he was the nicest fella in the world, which wasn’t often.’
    On one occasion, according to Sheehan’s statement, Kathleen told him that Noor had kicked the baby out of her—that she had been heavily pregnant.
    Maureen Moran was the landlord of the accommodation where they stayed in Cork, although the couple only lived there for five weeks. While she was collecting rent one day, she noticed that Kathleen