Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen

A distinguished international jurist, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen was appointed the State's first Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention in April 2002 by the then minister for justice, Mr John O'Donoghue.

A native of Co Kerry, Mr Justice Kinlen graduated from UCD and King's Inns, becoming a senior counsel in 1971, and a judge to the Court of Appeal of the OECD in 1990.

In 1993, he was appointed a judge of the High Court, a post he retained until becoming inspector under a five-year contract.

A man of diverse interests, including Irish-Chinese relations, he has a strong background in prison visits, having been a member of the visiting committee of St Patrick's Institution for Juvenile Offenders from 1971 to 1993, and chairman of the visiting committee of Mountjoy from 1990 to 1993.

He was an early member of PACE (Prisoners' Aid through Community Effort), which provides a half-way house to discharged prisoners, and is now a patron of that organisation.

He has also visited prisons in China, Vietnam, Cuba, Northern Ireland, the Philippines and Hong Kong as part of international monitoring groups.

In 1997, the Pope made him a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of St Gregory the Great with Cross, partly for his work with prisoners.

His links with China stem from a visit in 1977 to the country with the former president of Ireland, Mr Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh. He was subsequently involved in establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries and became president of the Irish-Chinese Cultural Society.

In 1998 he led a delegation of Irish judges to lecture the Chinese judiciary on human rights.