The 38-year old's wife and three children are financially destitute and have applied for money to the criminal injuries compensation tribunal. Husna Mohamed Said is living in a delapidated house with her son and two daughters and gardai say their lives have fallen apart since Noor's murder in March 2005.

Farah Noor sent his family over money each month and his former partner Kathleen Mulhall told gardai that he sent over 7,500 in the three years they were together. Mulhall's two daughters Linda and Charlotte are currently in jail over the killing and a file on her own involvement is with the DPP.

Said and her children have had no income in the two years since Noor's death. Detectives are in regular contact with her and Farah's elderly mother, Somoe Shigoo, and sent them the necessary forms so they could claim compensation for his violent death.

The tribunal was set up to compensate people who were victims of serious crime. The family of somebody who dies as a result of a violent crime is also entitled to compensation.

Farah Noor's family were too poor to come to Ireland for his funeral or the trial and sentencing of the Mulhalls.

A garda source said: "Whatever little bit of cash they get from the tribunal will help them but the long-term future looks very bleak for them.

They are really the unseen victims in this case and it is very sad."

Farah Noor married 36year-old Husna Said when she was 17. They had three children together, Somoe (18), Mohamed (17) and 16-year-old Zuleh. Noor came to Ireland in December 1996 and had two children with different women while he was here. He met Kathleen Mulhall in 2001 and they moved to Cork together after Mulhall left her husband and family.

Farah Noor was murdered in Mulhall's flat in Ballybough, Dublin, after being stabbed 22 times and beaten with a hammer. He was cut into eight pieces and dumped in the Royal Canal at Ballybough Bridge. His head and penis have never been found. Charlotte Mulhall (24) is serving a life sentence after being found guilty of his murder while her sister Linda (32) was sentenced to 15 years for his manslaughter.