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Irish priest who set up Aids hospice shot in robbery
An Irish priest, who was the first person to volunteer to take part in South African Aids vaccine trials, was shot and seriously wounded in a robbery at his home yesterday.
- AP
- Published: 00:00 March 3, 2007
Pretoria, South Africa: An Irish priest, who was the first person to volunteer to take part in South African Aids vaccine trials, was shot and seriously wounded in a robbery at his home yesterday.
The priest set up a hospice for people dying of the disease.
Father Kieran Creagh was in stable but serious condition at a hospital, after being shot twice in the upper body, police said.
A group of eight men broke into Creagh's apartment in the middle of the night.
They made off with money from his safe and his cell phone, Captain Lucas Sithole told the South African Press Association.
Director
Creagh is a director of the Leratong Hospice, which means "Where There is Love" in a local African language, and which cares for Aids patients in an impoverished township just outside Pretoria.
A much-loved local figure, the 44-year-old born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, attracted a regular stream of Irish politicians, visitors and volunteer nurses to the Irish-funded hospice.
He made headlines in 2003 by becoming the first volunteer in the first human trials in South Africa for an Aids vaccine.
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