IRELAND
Herald
A FORMER Roman Catholic Archbishop who resigned over breaking his vow of celibacy has sued RTE for defamation.
Tim Healy – 25 June 2015
Richard Burke, former Archbishop of Benin city in Nigeria, claims he was wrongly depicted as a paedophile in the 2011 Prime Time Investigates programme Mission to Prey.
Co Tipperary-born Mr Burke, now aged 66, had intimate sexual relations with Dolores Atwood, who featured on the RTE programme, but not when she was under age, his counsel Jack Fitzgerald SC told a High Court judge and jury.
Mr Burke “is not a paedophile”, has never in his life ever molested a child and, at the end of this case, you will be convinced that is the truth, counsel said.
As an Archbishop who had sexual relations with Ms Atwood, she had “leaned” on him and he paid her “a large sum of money”, about €176,000, but that was something not mentioned in the programme, counsel said.
The jury would hear the pressure Ms Atwood put on Mr Burke was such he became “terrified” of the exposure of their relationship, he said.
The court would also hear Mr Burke paid large sums to her due to pressure she was putting him under.
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