LAST UPDATE | 37 mins ago
THE JURY IN the sex abuse trial of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson will resume their deliberations for a third day later this morning.
Deliberations began on Thursday and the jury has been considering its verdict for close to seven hours so far.
The jury will return to Newry Crown Court at 11am this morning.
Before sending the jury home for the weekend, judge Paul Ramsey issued his “usual warning not to talk about the case outside court, and to be care of the internet and social media”.
The judge also informed the jury at the beginning of their deliberations that the “prosecution must bear the burden of proving the case beyond reasonable doubt”.
“It’s a term you have heard in movies and the like, but you need to be sure.”
The 63-year-old former MP has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences.
The charges include one count of rape and allegations of indecent assault and gross indecency, and span a period between 1985 and 2008 involving two alleged victims.
Complainants A and B have both given evidence at the trial.
Both women allege they were abused as children.
Donaldson spent two days giving evidence during the trial.
His wife, Eleanor Donaldson (60) from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending.
She is facing a trial of the facts on mental health grounds.
The trial of the facts will test the evidence in the case but cannot result in a criminal conviction.
Last week, the judge remarked that “trial of the facts” was the most Googled term in Northern Ireland last month but that such a trial is “not unheard of, had happened before and will happen again.”