Opposition seeks explanation on prison mobile phone picture

OPPOSITION PARTIES have called on the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, to explain how a female inmate who killed and dismembered a man was pictured on a mobile phone in jail holding a knife to the throat of a male prisoner.

Charlotte Mulhall (25), Kilclare Gardens, Tallaght, Dublin 24, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006 for the murder by stabbing and dismemberment of Farah Swaleh Noor in March 2005.

On Thursday a photograph appeared in an evening newspaper showing Ms Mulhall jokingly holding a knife up to the throat of a male prisoner.

The picture was taken in the kitchen area of the women’s Dóchas centre in Dublin’s Mountjoy jail.

Labour spokesman on justice Pat Rabbitte said the case raised a number of issues that Dermot Ahern needed to address.

He questioned why a woman convicted of a “particularly gruesome” stabbing murder had access to a knife in jail. He said the circumstances surrounding male and female prisoners socialising together also required explanation.

“Who took the photograph and what does its publication say about Government promises to end the traffic of mobile phones into the prison system?” he asked.

Fine Gael spokesman on justice Charlie Flanagan said the picture suggested prison security was “a shambles”. He called on Mr Ahern to order an investigation into the “extraordinary” incident.

“If these phones can still be smuggled into prison, in spite of years of promises for better security, then who knows what else is getting in?”

The director general of the Irish Prison Service, Brian Purcell, said an investigation was under way into the incident. He said security was being improved up to the standard of airport-style checks for every visitor to the jail.

The Irish Times understands Ms Mulhall had access to a knife because she worked in the kitchens at the Dóchas centre. The male prisoner pictured was a trustee inmate, meaning he was trusted with special responsibilities.

At the time the picture was taken last year he had been sent for the day to work alongside female inmates in the Dóchas centre kitchen because of staff shortages there.

He was serving a sentence for drug-dealing and has since been released. Charlotte Mulhall has been transferred to Limerick Prison as a result of the photograph’s publication.