The Court of Criminal Appeal will rule today on a bid by Dublin woman Linda Mulhall to secure a reduction in her 15-year sentence for the manslaughter of her mother's boyfriend.
Farah Swaleh Noor's body was cut up and dumped in the Royal Canal in Dublin and his head has never been found.
Last December, the three-judge appeal court reserved judgment on the appeal by Mulhall, a mother of four, against the severity of the sentence imposed on her at the Central Criminal Court in December 2006 by Mr Justice Paul Carney.
Linda Mulhall was found guilty in October 2006 of the manslaughter of Farah Swaleh Noor on March 20th, 2005, after a drinking session at the home of their mother, Kathleen Mulhall, in Summerhill, Dublin.
Her sister Charlotte Mulhall (25), of Kilclare Heights, Tallaght, was found guilty of Mr Noor's murder and received the mandatory life sentence.
Charlotte Mulhall is appealing against her conviction and that appeal has yet to be heard.
During Linda Mulhall's appeal hearing, her counsel, Brendan Grehan SC, argued Mr Justice Carney had imposed an excessive sentence in December 2006 in the absence of any consideration of psychiatric and probation reports. The reports were not completed in time for the sentencing hearing and the judge should not have proceeded without considering them, he argued.
Because of the absence of reports, the sentencing judge heard only background evidence from gardaí about Linda Mulhall, counsel also said. He said evidence was given that Linda Mulhall was a good parent to her children but Mr Justice Carney had rejected that evidence.
Linda Mulhall's children would be adults by the time she was released from prison, no element of rehabilitation was built into the sentence and she had shown genuine remorse for what occurred, counsel added.
Mr Grehan said Linda Mulhall had a troubled background but also had a good record, bar one minor incident in 1993.
Opposing the appeal counsel for the DPP, Tom O'Connell SC, said Mr Justice Carney had taken all mitigating factors into account before passing sentence. Mr Justice Carney had also noted the case involved the most grotesque of killings.
