The High Court has reserved judgment in application by convicted murderer Charlotte Mulhall for permission to bring a challenge aimed at securing a transfer from Limerick Prison back to the Dochas Centre woman's prison in Dublin.
In her action Mulhall claims she was transferred to Limerick from the Dochas Centre on December 24th 2018, two days after she was seen by a prison officer sitting on another prison officer while performing a beauty treatment.
She disputes claims that anything inappropriate occurred and that she was in an allegedly compromising position with the female prison officer in question.
She also says she has never been given the opportunity to address the prison authorities over what she says actually occurred.
She claims that as a result of the move her Dublin-based family, for a variety of reasons, have not visited her since she was moved to Limerick.
Lack of visits
The lack of visits, she says has caused "great stress and upset to her and her family members".
She said in a sworn statement to the court that "I am lonely and sad" due to "the lack of visits from my family" and "I miss my dog who was part of canine programme I was undertaking prior to my transfer."
As a result, she has brought judicial review proceedings against the Irish Prison Service, the Governor of Limerick Prison, the Minister for Justice & Equality, Ireland and the Attorney General seeking a return to the Dochas Centre.
The court previously directed that her application for permission to bring the challenge be heard on notice to the state respondents.
Represented by Conor Power SC and Cian Kelly Bl Mulhall seeks various orders including one directing the respondents to return her to Dublin, as well as an order quashing the decision to transfer her to Limerick.
Out of time
The respondents, represented by Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, oppose the application on grounds including that the application for leave is out of time.
The prison service also says that permission should not be granted because it is entitled to make the transfer and that Mulhall had told the prison authorities that she was happy in Limerick.
The matter came before Mr Justice Anthony Barr on Tuesday, who following the conclusion of submissions from both sides reserved his decision.
In a sworn statement to the court Mulhall claims that despite being moved to Limerick just before Christmas 2018 she was not fully sure why she had been transferred to Limerick, where she enjoys enhanced or trusted prisoner status.
The court heard that it was not until June 2020, following a Freedom of Information request, that she got in writing why she had been transferred to Limerick.
'Compromising position'
In the information obtained the Prison service said that Mulhall had been found "in a very compromising position with a prison officer", that the interaction between Mulhall and the female officer "has been the focus of media attention previously".
The information obtained from the Prison Service under the FOI also stated that Mulhall was "involved in a number of high-profile liaisons while in Dochas," which "received significant media coverage including adverse comment and that she should be transferred to Limerick "until further notice".
Mulhall disputes these claims, and says that had she "been afforded the opportunity to address the situation which I was not, I would have told the governor exactly what happened and this transfer could have been avoided."
Disciplinary regulations
She claims that if she was moved as a punishment, she would have been entitled to a hearing under prison disciplinary regulations. No such hearing took place.
Known as the 'scissors sisters' Charlotte, and her sister Linda Mulhall, were convicted in 2006 of the killing 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, some days afterwards.
Following a high-profile trial at the Central Criminal Court Charlotte, who was aged 21 years at the time of the killing, was found guilty of murder.
Linda was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison. She has been subsequently been released from custody.
