IRELAND
Irish Independent
PUBLISHED
01/07/2015
A FORMER Catholic Archbishop has told the High Court he wanted a woman to withdraw and seek the return of a letter, sent by her to Rome, which accused him of sexually abusing her when she was aged 13 and 14.
Richard Burke denies he sexually abused Dolores Atwood in Nigeria when she was aged 13 or 14. He and Ms Atwood had consensual sex for the first time when she was aged 20 and he was 40, he insists.
Mr Burke (66), a native of Co Tipperary, has completed his evidence in his action against RTE alleging he was defamed in the RTE Prime Time Investigates: Mission to Prey programme broadcast on May 23rd 2011. He claims material in the programme wrongly meant he was a paedophile. RTE denies defamation.
After Mr Burke’s re-examination concluded this morning, the seventh day of the case, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley and the jury were told the evidence of behalf of Mr Burke had concluded.
The jury was then asked to go out while legal discussion began in their absence.
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