[ad_1]
Sister Charlotte Mulhall, a convicted murderer, has launched a challenge to the High Court with the aim of securing a transfer from Limerick prison to the Dochas Center women’s prison in Dublin.
The court heard that Mulhall was transferred to Limerick Prison from the Dochas Center on December 24, 2018, two days after a prison official saw her sitting on another prison official while undergoing beauty treatment.
In an affidavit in court, Mulhall disputes that version of events and says that she has never been given the opportunity to address prison authorities about what she says actually happened.
She claims that as a result of the move, her Dublin family, for various reasons, have not visited her since she moved to Limerick.
The lack of visitors, she says, has caused “great stress and discomfort for her and her family members.”
‘Lonely and sad’
In her affidavit she said: “I feel lonely and sad” because of “the lack of visits from my family” and “I miss my dog who was part of the canine program that I was doing before my transfer.”
As a result, he has taken legal action against the Irish Prison Service, the Governor of Limerick Prison, the Irish Minister of Justice and Equality and the Attorney General to request a return to the Dochas Center.
Represented by Conor Power SC, Mulhall is seeking several orders, including one ordering her return to Dublin, as well as an order reversing the decision to transfer her to Limerick.
Power said that even though she was transferred to Limerick just before Christmas 2018, she was not entirely sure why she had been transferred to Limerick, where she enjoys an enhanced or trusted prisoner status.
It wasn’t until June 2020, following a Freedom of Information request, that her client received in writing why she had been transferred to Limerick.
High profile links
In the information obtained, the Correctional Service said that Mulhall had been found “in a very compromising position with a prison official”, and that the relationship between Mulhall and the official “has been the focus of media attention before.”
Information obtained from the Prison Service under the FOI also indicated that Mulhall was “involved in a number of high-profile links while at Dochas”, that she “received significant media coverage, including adverse comments, and that she should be transferred to Limerick. “Until further notice.”
Mulhall said she denies it, and if she “had the opportunity to address the situation that I was not, she would have told the governor exactly what happened and this transfer could have been prevented.”
The lawyer said that if it was a case in which her client was transferred “as punishment,” then she was entitled to a hearing under the prison’s disciplinary rules. No such hearing had been held.
The lawyer said that if it was not a punishment, the prison authorities had not taken into account certain rights, including hers and those of her and her family. The lawyer added that this was an action that her client had a right to take and not an attempt to ‘micromanage prison regimes’.
The request for permission to file the challenge was filed with Judge Charles Meenan on Monday.
The judge, noting that there is a great deal of jurisprudence on how courts should not micromanage prisons, said the request for permission should be heard in the presence of the defendants’ lawyers.
The matter was postponed to a date next month.
Murder
Known as the ‘scissor sisters’ Charlotte, and her sister Linda Mulhall, were convicted in 2006 for the murder of their mother’s boyfriend, Farah Swaleh Noor, in March 2005.
The dismembered body of Noor, who had a history of being extremely violent towards women, was found dumped in the Royal Canal near Croke Park a few days later.
After a high-profile trial in the Central Criminal Court, Charlotte, who was 21 at the time of the murder, was found guilty of murder.
Linda was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
[readmore][/readmore]
[ad_2]