Visa 'bribe' trial enters final stages

The concluding stages have been reached in the trial of a former Garda National Immigration Bureau employee who allegedly took bribes for issuing fraudulent visas to Chinese students.

John Kennedy (aged 69), Willow Crest, Trees Avenue, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin has pleaded not guilty in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to receiving bribes as well as a bottle of wine and a meal voucher between December 2002 and January 2003 in return for issuing fraudulent visas to Chinese students.

The jury has heard closing speeches by prosecuting counsel, Mr Thomas O'Connell SC (with Mr Remy Farrell BL), and by Mr John Rogers SC (with Mr Cormac Quinn BL) and will retire to consider its verdicts after being charged by Judge Desmond Hogan.

It was day eight of the trial which continues at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court before Judge Hogan with a jury of six men and six women.