Latin Tridentine Bishop Michael Cox has told the High Court he did not in any way influence a woman whose will is at the centre of a legal dispute.

A judge has accused a man who describes himself as a bishop of making a fool of a 17-year-old by pretending that he had married him and taking money from him under false pretences.

Renegade bishop Michael Cox charged a teenage couple — one of them underage — €100 for a ‘sham’ marriage.

A judge directed that renegade bishop Michael Cox be investigated by gardaí concerning a marriage he allegedly performed involving a “naive” 17-year-old Co Clare boy and a Cork girl.