Shot priest talks of court ordeal

Father Kieran Creagh was in court to hear the guilty verdict

Two South African men have been convicted of the attempted murder of Belfast priest Father Kieran Creagh.

Father Creagh was beaten and shot in February last year when a gang broke into the Aids hospice which he founded in Pretoria.

He said the support offered in court by local people helped him through.

"It has been difficult going to court because just when you think you're getting back to normal you have to go and relive it all again," he said.

"It begins to wear you down after a while, but I have received tremendous support from staff in the hospice and the local community.

"They had to turn people away from the viewing gallery today because that many people turned up to show their support."

Following the shooting, surgeons removed one of the bullets from his lung.

The missionary priest was the first person in Africa to voluntarily be injected with a trial HIV vaccine, despite being free from the virus himself.

He has worked with Aids patients in the country for more than a decade and opened the Leratong hospice in 2004.