WOULD YOU STAN
She called him her ‘best friend’ in her PhD thesis ...but this Portuguese academic’s world has been turned upside down by the news her husband was caught in a vigilante sting operation
IT’S a touching dedication that reflects the devotion and gratitude of a wife to her husband. When Diana Gouveia, a Portuguese academic, finished her PhD thesis, she had many people to thank. But she kept one particular message for last, as she paid tribute to her Irish husband.
The words, simple but heartfelt, spoke volumes about their relationship.
She wrote: ‘Finally, I thank Kieran Creaven, my husband and my best friend... I think that says it all.’
This weekend, however, Ms Gouveia’s world and marriage have been turned upside down, following revelations that her husband has been charged with two offences in relation to attempting to engage in sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl. The RTÉ sports producer was arrested in Leeds after a vigilante group detained him.
Ms Gouveia is a leading academic in Irish university circles. She has worked as a lecturer in anthropology in Maynooth University and as a subject leader for anthropology on the First Arts degree in their Kilkenny Campus.
She holds a master’s degree in anthropology from NUI Maynooth, Ireland, and a PhD from the same department.
Ms Gouveia has also served as a researcher for the International Organisation for Migration in Dublin, as well as contributed to research in the area of migration for different media broadcasters such as the BBC World Service, RTÉ Radio and RTÉ Television.
She has worked as an interpreter in a range of centres and associations related to migration and human right issues such as the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC), the Refugee Appeals Tribunal (RAT), and the Centre for the Care of Survivors of Torture.
‘Diana is a very distinguished academic,’ said one acquaintance. ‘She has worked extremely hard to establish a reputation as an expert in her field. She is mild-mannered and unassuming and this will have come as a complete shock to her. She thinks the world of Kieran but this will put immense strain on her personally and professionally.’
The couple are thought to live in a gated apartment complex in inner city Dublin. Directly across the road is a day nursery, where dozens of children spill out the door daily to play.
As well as the nursery, a children’s playground is located less than a minute away.
The two-bedroom home, situated in the northside of the city, was purchased by Mr Creaven and his wife Diana Gouveia last year.
Calls to the door on Thursday went unanswered.
Mr Creaven was arrested in Leeds last weekend after a sting by a paedophile hunter group known as Predator Exposure.
To those who know him, the footage of the man sitting in the dark sports cap, coolly and calmly answering a barrage of questions from the baying mob, made for truly chilling viewing. Could it really be him? They wondered, examining the clip again, studying his face and searching for clues.
As the 40-minute clip rolled on, Kieran Creaven identified himself as a sports producer from Ireland. He had a wife, he told his captors, and no children.
‘Listen, I’ll tell you what it is,’ he says in the footage. ‘Look I don’t have any kids and I wanted to be a father so I was trying to talk to someone.’
It was Saturday night in Leeds. Kieran Creaven thought he was meeting a 13-year-old girl he’d met online, instead he was confronted by an anti-paedophile vigilante group.
‘Just to burst your bubble, you haven’t been speaking to a 13-yearold girl,’ says one of the group. ‘You’ve been speaking to us.
‘In fact, this is the person you’ve been speaking to, she’s not 13 as you can see.’
The speaker then mocks Creaven, who appears close to tears about his high-profile job, ‘You’re not chucking dustbins in the f***ing thing are you?... We have a lot of [followers] in Ireland, someone will recognise you.’
By Monday, as RTÉ staff filed back into work after the weekend, the story was front page news. Meanwhile the footage, filmed by Predator Exposure, had gone viral.
`I was in the studio on Monday and everyone was talking about it,’ a member of staff from the RTÉ sports department told the Mail.
‘Everyone is just flabbergasted. I was his friend on Facebook and I woke up to a bit of abuse on Monday morning. He was always a very nice fella, very affable and very mannerly and polite.’
While most of Mr Creaven’s colleagues described him as a ‘likeable character’, they also noted that he tended to keep to himself and divulged little about his life outside
‘This will have come as a huge shock to her’