Charlotte Mulhall denied appeal against murder conviction

Killer Charlotte Mulhall today lost an appeal against her conviction for the gruesome murder of her mother’s African boyfriend.

The 25-year-old will remain in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison for life for stabbing Kenyan man Farah Swaleh Noor 20 times and cutting up his body.

Mr Noor’s dismembered remains were recovered from the Royal Canal in Dublin in 2005.

His severed head, which was taken in a duffel bag on a bus to Tallaght, in the south of the city, to be buried and his penis have never been found.

Charlotte and her sister 32-year-old Linda were convicted of killing Mr Noor in March 2005 after a drinking session at their mother’s home in Summerhill, in the north inner city.

The younger sister’s barrister, Brendan Grehan SC, today told three judges presiding at the Court of Criminal Appeal that comments made by trial judge Mr Paul Carney to the jury pressured them into a conviction.

He said that after more than 14 hours of deliberations, Mr Justice Paul Carney told the deadlocked jury: “There are five children having a vital interest in this so I’m anxious that we reach a conclusion.”

Mr Grehan claimed that although these words seemed favourable to the defence, they could have put undue pressure on the jurors who returned guilty verdicts the following day.

In dismissing the application, Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan, presiding in the three-judge Appeal Court, said as defence counsel failed to object to the statement at the time they could not now use it as a ground of appeal.

“All the evidence suggests the verdict is safe,” he added.

Linda, who was jailed for 15 years for manslaughter, recently won an appeal against the length of her term on grounds she was sentenced without the trial judge first seeing her probation and psychological reports.