You probably remember the headlines from 2005. They were everywhere. The "Scissor Sisters" was the kind of nickname that felt like it belonged in a dark, over-the-top thriller, not in the quiet suburban reality of Dublin. But for Linda and Charlotte Mulhall, it wasn't fiction. It was a St. Patrick’s weekend that spiraled into one of the most stomach-turning crimes in Irish history.
Honestly, the details still feel heavy even twenty years later. We’re talking about a night of heavy drinking and ecstasy that ended with the death—and subsequent dismemberment—of Farah Swaleh Noor. It wasn't just a murder; it was what happened after the killing that truly shocked the nation. The logistics of it, the sheer cold-bloodedness of moving body parts through the city on a bus, it’s the stuff of nightmares.
The Night Everything Collapsed
People often ask why. Why did two sisters, along with their mother Kathleen, end up in a flat at Richmond Cottages in Summerhill with a dead man?
Farah Swaleh Noor wasn't exactly a saint. He had a history of violence and was the boyfriend of the girls' mother, Kathleen. On that night in March 2005, the group was fueled by a dangerous cocktail of alcohol and drugs. Reports from the trial suggest Noor made a sexual advance toward Linda, and that's when the room exploded.
Charlotte, who was just 21 or 22 at the time, grabbed a Stanley knife. She slit his throat. Then Linda joined in, reportedly using a hammer.
It was brutal.
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But the horror was only beginning. The sisters spent hours in the bathroom dismembering Noor’s body. They used a kitchen knife and a hammer. They even used towels to try and manage the blood. It sounds like a scene from a slasher flick, but it was real life in a Dublin council flat.
The Canal and the Missing Head
For ten days, nobody knew. Then, a passerby spotted a leg—still wearing a sock—floating in the Royal Canal near Croke Park.
The Gardaí eventually pulled seven body parts from the water. But two things were missing: the head and the penis. Those parts were never recovered by police. Linda eventually admitted that they had taken the head in a bag—get this—on a Dublin Bus. They walked through a shopping center in Tallaght and buried it in a park.
Later, Linda allegedly went back, dug it up, and used a hammer to break it into pieces so it could never be identified. Talk about dedication to a cover-up.
Why the "Scissor Sisters"?
The media gave them that name, obviously. It was a play on the popular band at the time, but the irony was dark. The public was fascinated and repulsed. You couldn't open a newspaper without seeing their faces.
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Where Are Linda and Charlotte Mulhall Now?
The legal system handled them very differently.
Linda Mulhall was convicted of manslaughter. She got a 15-year sentence. Her defense was "provocation," arguing that Noor’s behavior triggered the attack. She served her time—mostly in the Dóchas Centre—and was released in 2018. She’s been keeping a low profile since then, reportedly living under a different name in the Midlands. Honestly, can you blame her? You don't just walk back into normal life after that.
Charlotte Mulhall had a much harder road. She was convicted of murder. That carries a mandatory life sentence in Ireland.
For years, Charlotte was a fixture of the Irish prison system. She made headlines again in 2008 when photos leaked of her holding a knife to a male prisoner's throat during a visit. It was a PR disaster for the prison service and meant she was moved to Limerick Prison.
Fast forward to late 2025 and early 2026. The news cycle has started buzzing again because Charlotte has been granted significant freedom.
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- Day Release: She’s been out on supervised and unsupervised day releases to prepare for life on the outside.
- Open Prison: She spent time in lower-security settings.
- Parole: After serving roughly 20 years, she was recently sighted enjoying her first full nights of freedom.
It’s a polarizing topic. Some think she’s served her time; others can’t forget the sheer depravity of what happened in that bathroom in 2005.
The Fallout Nobody Talks About
We focus on the sisters, but the whole family was destroyed. Their father, John Mulhall, took his own life shortly after the sisters were arrested. He wasn't involved in the murder, but the weight of it was clearly too much.
Kathleen Mulhall, the mother, fled to England. She was eventually brought back and served time for concealing evidence, but many people feel she was the one who actually instigated the whole thing, allegedly telling her daughters to "kill him for me."
Key Takeaways and What’s Next
If you’re following this case in 2026, here is the current reality of the situation:
- Charlotte's Status: She is effectively transitionining back into society. While she is technically a "lifer," life sentences in Ireland involve a parole process that eventually leads to permanent release under supervision.
- The Victim's Identity: It’s worth remembering Farah Swaleh Noor was a Kenyan national. His family never got to bury him in full because of what the sisters did to his remains.
- Public Safety: There are no current reports of the sisters being involved in further violent crime, but their names remain synonymous with "extreme violence" in the Irish consciousness.
If you are researching this for a project or out of true crime interest, the best resources are the original trial transcripts and the book The Irish Scissor Sisters by Mick McCaffrey. He covered the case from day one and gets into the grit that the headlines missed. You can also look up the recent Crime World podcast episodes which offer a retrospective on the 20th anniversary of the discovery in the canal.