Ex-Archbishop says woman was 20 when they had ‘inappropriate’ sex in Nigeria

IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Tim Healy
PUBLISHED
27/06/2015

A former Catholic Archbishop has told the High Court in Dublin he had an “inappropriate” sexual relationship with a woman in Nigeria which began in 1989 when she was aged 20 and he was 40.

Co Tipperary-born Richard Burke (66), ordained a priest in 1975, said he felt “uneasy” by the demeanour, which “gave an impression of being flirtatious” of then 20-year-old Dolores Atwood when she came unexpectedly to his private apartment in the Nigerian city of Warri in 1989.

Mr Burke was being cross-examined in his continuing action alleging defamation in RTE’s May 2011 Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme.

Mr Burke, a former Archbishop of Benin, Nigeria, alleges it wrongly depicted him as a paedophile. RTE denies defamation.

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