A former Catholic archbishop has told the High Court that a Nigerian woman featured in a TV documentary was 20 when he first had sex with her.

Richard Burke denied that she was 13 or 14 as had been claimed.

He was giving evidence in his defamation claim against RTÉ over allegations made about him in the RTÉ documentary A Mission To Prey.

The 66-year-old from Clonmel, Co Tipperary claims the programme wrongly portrayed him as a paedophile.

In the witness box for a second day he said he had sex with Dolores Atwood in Nigeria in 1989 when she was 20 and they had sex three more times before he returned to Ireland.

He said they kept in touch by letter and later by phone.

She moved to Canada in 1995 and between 1996 and 2003 there were phone calls between them.

He said in 2003 she asked him to meet in Lagos and to give her $4,000, which he did.

The calls later increased in frequency to once a week or every ten days and became "very unpleasant" for him, he said.

He said Ms Atwood was expressing feelings for him he could not reciprocate and was demanding intimacy.

He was devastated to learn she had phoned his brother and sister in Ireland.

He said she then rang demanding money and flew to Nova Scotia and paid her €26,000. She said they were to reimburse her for all the phone calls if the relationship was to end.

At the time he was "incredibly worried" that if he did not hand over the money she would reveal they had an intimate relationship.

He said the phone calls later became "menacing, threatening, aggressive, abusive and demanding" and she gave him four options.

Those options were to meet anywhere in the world and spend one week together and have full sex; for him to give her €10,000 every year for five years; that they would meet to discuss things or that they would be together again the way they used to be.

Mr Burke said he was to choose one option and to get back to her.

The court was told he had tape-recorded the conversation.

She made another call to him during which there was a tirade of abuse and that was the first time she mentioned the word paedophile, he said.

He said he decided to pay her a lump sum of €50,000 to avoid prolonging the nightmare.

In July 2008 she rang again demanding €100,000 which he paid to her in London because he was "simply terrorised" that she would reveal their intimate relationship.

"I was ashamed and utterly terrified. It would bring disgrace upon me and my family, the diocese, the priests and the people," he said.

She later demanded €200,000 but he could not pay that.

"There were no further payments but there was a price I had to pay I told her there was no way on earth I could get €200,000 so she said all right you can’t get €200,000 but I want you to meet me in Canada and we will have full sex."

Asked did that happen, he replied: "It happened. I went to Halifax in Nova Scotia, that was February 2009."

Mr Burke also said the incident in a hospital referred to in the RTÉ documentary did not happen when she was 13 but there had been an incident in a hospital after they had first had sex when she was aged 20.

During cross examination Mr Burke described himself as "truthful, sincere, generous, available, committed and flawed".

Asked by counsel for RTÉ what he meant by flawed he said he meant human.

Counsel for RTÉ Paul O'Higgins repeatedly asked Mr Burke if he viewed himself as a victim of Ms Atwood.

Mr Burke said he viewed himself as someone who was branded by RTÉ as a paedophile.

Mr O'Higgins said he has spent seven minutes describing his relationship with Ms Atwood and 35 minutes complaining about the payments he had made which had nothing to do with RTÉ.

Asked what his flaws were, he replied: "I can be vulnerable."

Asked what he meant by that he replied: "I can be taken advantage of."

Mr O'Higgins said: "So on the one hand we have Dolores Atwood who is a liar and on the other we have you who says you are a truthful person.

"It is the very first characteristic you list. How would you define truthful?"

Mr Burke said if he was asked something he would say yes or no in accordance with the truth.

He was asked when he had been made a bishop and archbishop and he said 1995 and 2007 respectively.

Mr O'Higgins asked if he regarded a hypocrite as being a truthful person.

"You don't seem to regard hypocrisy as having the same connection?"

Mr Burke said a hypocrite was a person who gives one impression but does something else while a lie was saying something untrue.

He said to tell a lie is a verbal thing, hypocrisy is to do the action.

Mr Burke accepted his relationship with Ms Atwood was inappropriate because he said he was a priest with a commitment to celibacy.

He agreed it was also inappropriate because of their age difference.

He said she was 20 when they first had sex and he was 40.

He agreed that when they first met when she was 17 or 18 she was from a troubled background, her parents were divorced and her step mother did not want her around.

She was from an Islamic family and she told him she was attracted to the Catholic faith.

He said he provided a listening ear to her, particularly after the death in a car accident of another priest to whom she had been a "confidante".

Describing their first sexual encounter in September 1989 he said she called to his home at an unusual time one Sunday and he "immediately began to feel uneasy".

"I felt uneasy particularly by her demeanour. She gave an impression of being flirtatious."

He said he tried to leave the room but she stood in front of the door.

He then left and went down to the kitchen with the intention of getting a staff member to join them as a sort of chaperone because he felt she could easily have shouted or screamed.

Mr O’Higgins asked why on earth that would worry him if nothing had happened.

"You were a 40-year-old man, much taller and in a position of authority, why did you not just leave?"

Mr Burke said he felt at first apprehensive about her demeanour but then "her eyes, her smile, her expression" suggested to him that she was interested in him and he was flattered by her attention.

Mr O’Higgins said: "So she tempted you?" Mr Burke replied "I did not ask her to call to my apartment. I did not set up an arrangement.

"She indicated she wanted to be intimate and I felt flattered. I felt I was someone who was special in her eyes. I felt why is she doing this to me she has feelings for me."

He said she expressed this desire through "her eyes, her gestures, her voice and I began to respond to her overtures."

He said they then had sex in his bedroom and "she expressed great joy that what had happened had happened".

He agreed that he had felt great joy too at first but then guilt and confusion because he had transgressed his vow of celibacy.

Mr O’Higgins asked if he felt any concern for her and the consequences for her socially if it became know she had sex with a priest twice her age and he said he did not at that stage.

He said he agreed that she was at a stage in her education in Nigeria which would be the equivalent of the Leaving Cert in Ireland.

He later considered the fact that he had done something wrong by being intimate because "I am much older than her and I am a priest," he said.

He later informed her he was being moved back to Ireland and they stayed in contact after that by letter and by phone.

She moved to Canada and was married in 2005. He agreed that he may have told her in later years to destroy his letters and said he had destroyed hers.