The former Catholic Archbishop Richard Burke who has taken a defamation case against RTÉ has denied an allegation in the 2011 documentary "Mission to Prey" that he raped an underage girl in Africa.

Richard Burke began giving his evidence this afternoon.

He outlined his childhood and how he rose from being joining the St Patrick's Missionary Society known as the Kiltegan father to being Archbishop of Benin City in Nigeria.

He admitted that he had resigned his position as Archbishop in 2010 because he had been unfaithful to his oath of celibate commitment.

He said at the time of his resignation, it was an enormous trauma - and he felt he had made a mess of this in his life.

He acknowledged that he had brought shame on his family and friends and let the church down.

He knew he was going away in disgrace and it was no one's fault but his own.

Mr Burke initially heard a programme about clerical sexual abuse in Africa being prepared during a conversation with a friend in Kenya, who was shocked he was not already aware of it.

He did not see the programme on the night it was transmitted as he was in London and could not access it on the internet.

However, during the programme he received a number of texts from his niece in Ireland.

The first two texts 15 and 30 minutes into the programme said there was nothing about him yet.

However after 45 minutes his niece texted "This is bad", then "This is really bad".

Shortly afterwards she texted: "This is as bad as it can be." Mr Burke told the court his heart began to sink into darkness at how he was portrayed.

He said his family had already endured pain from the circumstances of his resignation as arbishop for breaking his vows of celibacy - but that was nothing to what they were going through now.

He said he only saw the programe in full about a month later when he came to Dublin.

He said he could not believe his eyes at the dramatisation of the allegation that he had led a young girl upstairs to his bedroom and then sexually assaulted her, abused her and raped her.

He stated: "This did not happen. I did not do that. What is portrayed there is a lie."

However, he told the court that on the one hand he was angry beyond belief - but on the ohter hand he felt totally powerless about how he could begin to address this.

He denied he had ever been invited to do an interview for the programme by text, email, letter, phone or personal contact adding "zero, nada, zilch".

He said that gave him some little thing to hang a hook of hope that he could fight back against the allegations.

Mr Burke's evidence will resume in the morning.

RTE is defending the defamation case on the basis that the allegations are true.

Earlier, counsel for Mr Burke accepted the former archbishop did have a consensual intimate relationship with Dolores Atwood who made the RTÉ Prime Time Investigates allegation - but insisted she was not under age at the time.

He also stated that Mr Burke had paid Ms Atwood €176,000 and $4,300 - some from his own resources and some from diocesan funds.

He said the diocesan funds were being repaid by arrangement with the Vatican from his income which was described as "meagre".

Mr Burke said he "wished he was dead" after the programme was broadcast.

Mr Burke resigned as Archbishop of Benin City in Nigeria in 2010 after failing to comply with his vow of celibacy.

However, opening his defamation case against RTÉ, his counsel Jack Fitzgerald said RTÉ had falsely and maliciously published allegations which were scandalous and wholly without foundation.

He said Mr Burke had been portrayed as a sexual predator and felt he would be suspected and shunned because of the one-sided portrayal without regard for the truth or his dignity as a human being.

Mr Fitzgerald took the jury through Mr Burke's statement of claim.

He outlined 26 specific claims against RTÉ, including that they had called Mr Burke a rapist and a paedophile, that he had participated in a coverup, had behaved in a despicable and unlawful manner which had offended against the moral, social religious and criminal code.

He acknowledged that in the course of an investigation carried out by the Kiltegan fathers, the plaintiff was sent on a risk assessment course for three days in Manchester, and a further six month course in Washington.

However, at the end there had been no indication that he had engaged in child sexual abuse.

He said Mr Burke was never contacted for interview for the programme, and that RTÉ had been incorrect in stating that he had declined - yet had never corrected that wrong.

He told the jury that RTÉ continued to deny the defamation, and would plead that the programme was true.

He said the damage to Mr Burke had been aggravated when the matters in the Mission to Prey programme were further discussed on an episode of RTÉ's Frontline programme, and on RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

The programme had also been advertised in advance on 26 occasions.

He said the Mission to Prey progamme had an audience of 529,000 while Morning Ireland had 338,000 listeners.

He cited the defence issued by RTÉ, which he said indicated that RTÉ was insisting that the programme had told the truth.

He said that Mr Burke had not been aware that he was being included in the programme until it was broadcast.

He said RTÉ had omitted several key elements, including that they knew an investigation by the Kiltegan fathers had found no evidence of child sexual abuse.

RTÉ said that RTÉ reporter Aoife Kavanagh had made multiple efforts to contact Mr Burke and the Kiltegan Fathers.

Mr Fitzgerald also described as "impertinent" a request from RTÉ in the run-up to the case for details of how many women he had had sex with.

He said that was an effort to embarrass and terrify him.

He said RTÉ appeared to see no difference between an allegation of sex with adult women, which was a private matter, and an allegation of sex with an underage girl, which was a criminal offence.

He referred to the sloppiness, silliness and negligence of RTÉ.