A KEY witness to the shooting of an Irish priest at his South African hospice last year failed to turn up in court yesterday at the trial of two men accused of the attempted murder.
Fr Kieran Creagh was shot three times in early March when a group of nine thieves broke into the hospice he set up in Attridgeville township near Pretoria.
While the Belfast-born priest took the stand at Attridgeville Magistrate's Court and recounted the events surrounding his near fatal shooting, former security guard Victor Mohkgagle, who was allegedly tied up by the thieves as they entered the hospice, failed to show up and give evidence.
Two men, Godfrey Phatlane and Edward Lesuifi, have been charged with the attempted murder of Fr Creagh.
"I gave evidence for about 40 minutes and told the court everything I could remember, I recounted the facts to the best of my ability," Fr Creagh told The Irish Times.
"However, I was unable to identify the two men on trial here as part of the group that attacked me."
Before adjourning the case to tomorrow, magistrate Allan Cowen issued a subpoena compelling Mr Mohkgagle to turn up and give evidence at the next day's hearing.
Fr Creagh said that while he was glad the proceedings were under way, he was very concerned at the failure of the main witness had failed to show.
"He failed to turn up at the last hearing, so if the case were to collapse because a witness failed to turn up that would be very worrying indeed," he said.
The trial of the two accused men was postponed last year because both men dismissed their legal representative just before proceedings began, and Mr Mohkgagle failed to attend court to give evidence.
Fr Creagh became a household name in 2004 when he volunteered to be the first person in Africa to have a new HIV-Aids vaccine tested on him even though he did not have the disease.