The Court of Criminal Appeal will give its judgment next year on an appeal by Dublin woman Linda Mulhall to have her 15-year sentence for the manslaughter of her mother's boyfriend reduced.
Farah Swaleh Noor's body was cut up and dumped in the Royal Canal in Dublin in March 2005. His head has never been found.
The three-judge appeal court yesterday reserved judgment on the appeal by Mulhall, a mother of four, against the severity of the sentence imposed at the Central Criminal Court in December 2006 by Mr Justice Paul Carney.
The court comprised Ms Justice Fidelma Macken, presiding, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and Mr Justice Éamon de Valera.
Ms Justice Macken said the court hoped to give judgment "as soon as possible" but it had several other judgments under consideration.
Mulhall was found guilty in October 2006 of the manslaughter of Farah Swaleh Noor (38) on March 20th, 2005, after a drinking session at the home of their mother, Kathleen Mulhall, in Summerhill, Dublin.
Her sister Charlotte Mulhall (25), Kilclare Heights, Tallaght, was found guilty of Mr Noor's murder and received a mandatory life sentence. She is appealing against her conviction and that appeal has yet to be heard.
Moving Mulhall's appeal yesterday, Brendan Grehan SC said the sentencing judge had erred by imposing a sentence that was excessive.
After his client was found guilty in October 2006, the matter was adjourned to early December 2006 for sentencing, Mr Grehan said. Psychiatric and probation reports were to be prepared for the sentencing judge by that date.
However these were not ready in time and, in their absence, Mr Justice Carney went ahead and imposed a 15-year sentence on her. Mr Grehan argued that such reports carried substantial weight when a judge came to formulate sentence and a sentence should not have been passed until the reports had been completed.
Mr Grehan said the sentencing judge heard only background evidence from the gardaí about Linda Mulhall.
Evidence was given that Mulhall was a good parent to her children but Mr Justice Carney had rejected that evidence.
His client's children would be adults by the time she was released from prison, he said. He also argued that no element of rehabilitation was built into the sentence and that she had shown genuine remorse for what occurred. He told the court Mulhall had a troubled background but, bar one minor incident in 1993, she had a good record.
She had also contacted the Garda about the offence, which had helped in the solving of the crime, and the jury had accepted her defence of provocation.
After the killing, Mulhall had turned to drugs and alcohol, slashed her arms and spent time in a psychiatric hospital before the trial, Mr Grehan said.
He further submitted that Mr Justice Carney had also placed too much emphasis on what had happened in the aftermath of the killing.
Opposing the appeal, counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions Tom O'Connell SC said Mr Justice Carney had taken all mitigating factors into account before passing sentence.
He said the judge had used 18 years as a starting point when considering what length of a prison term to impose, but had taken three years off as a discount after listening to the mitigating factors.
The judge was not obliged to have a period of suspension built into the sentence, he also argued. Mr Justice Carney, counsel noted, had said the case involved the most grotesque of killings. After Mr Noor was killed, his body was cut up for disposal.
Mr O'Connell said Mulhall had possession of Mr Noor's head and had moved it to various locations.
Last October, the Central Criminal Court heard that the African man's body was chopped up, before his headless remains were dumped in the Royal Canal at Ballybough in the north inner city. Some parts of the body have never been found.
On the day of the killing, the sisters, their mother and Mr Noor had been drinking heavily in the city centre and later they all took ecstasy. It was alleged Mr Noor made a pass at Linda and that her sister Charlotte cut his throat. Linda admitted hitting the victim a lot of times over the head with a hammer.
The trial was told the sisters dragged his body into the bathroom of her mother's home and cut it up. Mr Noor's torso and limbs were seen in the canal 10 days later.
The severed head was taken in a duffel bag on the bus to Tallaght where it was buried and reburied in a number of locations. It has never been recovered.