THE PROSECUTION CASE set out before a jury of seven men and five women at Newry Crown Court, was that Jeffrey Donaldson, once the leader of the DUP, had sexually assaulted two women when they were children.
The two women, who both gave evidence during the four-week trial, are known as Complainants A and B to protect their identities.
Donaldson denied 10 charges relating to Complainant B, the older of the two women, including one count of rape and nine of indecent assault, dating from 1985 to 1991.
He denied four charges of indecent assault and four of gross indecency relating to Complainant A, dating from 1999 to 2008.
Eleanor Donaldson, who faced a trial of the facts and did not participate in the proceedings, denied several charges of aiding and abetting.
When prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh KC initially addressed the jury last month, she said the ex-MP had subjected the two women to “difficult and traumatic incidents” when they were children.
Complainant A was the first witness called in the trial. She claimed that she had first been abused when of primary school age.
She told the jury of one incident where she claimed Donaldson had used a light, possibly a torch, to look at her “private parts”.
Complainant A said she told Eleanor Donaldson about the alleged incident.
She told the court: “I knew by the look on her face she knew I was telling the truth… once she identified I was telling the truth, she did nothing about it.”
Complainant A told the court that another incident where she claimed the former politician had put his tongue in her mouth had been “laughed off” by both the Donaldsons.
She also claimed he had touched her breasts “skin on skin” when she was a child.
Letter from Jeffrey Donaldson
On several occasions the jury heard about a letter which Donaldson had written to A in June 2020. In the letter he expressed “regret” for “all the hurt, pain and distress I have caused”.
Complainant A told the trial she had thought the letter was an attempt “to apologise for perhaps the abuse which had occurred”.
Donaldson denied this, stating the letter was nothing to do with sexual abuse but related to other behaviour.
Under cross-examination, A was asked why she had waited until 2024 to make her reports alleging the abuse to police.
She said: “I knew this would be an extremely public affair, involving media. It was a huge, huge decision.”
When a barrister representing Eleanor Donaldson put it to her that she was “making this up as you go along”, she responded: “I am here to tell the truth.”
Complainant B was the next to give evidence. She told the jury that she remembered two incidents “vividly”.
In one, she claimed that Jeffrey Donaldson had put his hands down her underwear, pulled her legs apart with his feet and then raped her when she was of primary school age.
In the second incident she claimed that he had lifted her top and started to touch her breasts when she was of secondary school age. She said Eleanor Donaldson had witnessed part of this alleged incident but “walked away”.
When challenged during cross-examination about her account, she said: “Everything I am saying is the truth… no matter how many questions people ask me it will never change that.”
Referring to her claim of rape, she stated: “The actions that night I will never forget, what happened that night will live with me forever.”
The jury next heard from the husband of Complainant A who became emotional as he told the court about the moment his wife informed him the abuse claims.
He said: “She was scared, she had never told anyone this, I recognised this was massive for her.”
The trial next heard evidence from a Presbyterian minister and his wife who had provided “pastoral support” to Complainant A and her husband after they had disclosed the allegations of abuse.
The minister told the jury that Jeffrey Donaldson had sent him a message in 2023 asking for a meeting. The man responded, telling the former MP that it would be “inappropriate” to have the meeting.
The court heard that Donaldson then sent a reply which said: “I just want to find a way to say how sorry I am and repent before them as I have before the Lord.”
The jury in the sexual offences trial then heard evidence about a meeting between Complainant B and Jeffrey Donaldson at the Christian Family Centre in Armoy in the 1990s.
B had stayed at the centre after developing issues with drugs when she was a teenager.
Claire Selfridge, the daughter of David and Linda Hoy, who founded the centre, gave evidence on a video link from South Africa.
She told the jury that B told her “she had been abused” in her bedroom.
She said: “Very shocking, almost like a bomb went off, that is what it felt like for me.”
The jury was next played a video of a police interview with Pastor Stephen Matthews, who said B had told him in Armoy about alleged abuse, but asked him not to go to police.
He said: “She said she can’t because it would destroy their political reputation, I don’t want that.”
Mr Matthews said he could not remember if B had named her alleged abuser but said it “became obvious” who it was.
Asked by a police officer who he believed that to be, Mr Matthews said: “There was only one person, that was Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.”
David and Linda Hoy next appeared as witnesses.
Mr Hoy said he had received a phone call from Mr Matthews stating there “had been an allegation”.
He added: “He said it was against Jeffrey Donaldson.”
Mr Hoy arranged the meeting between Donaldson and Complainant B, which was also attended by himself and his wife.
Mr Hoy told the jury: “Mr Donaldson spoke first, he said I know what this is about, he said I am sorry and can you please forgive me.”
Mr Hoy said he asked B if she wanted to “take this any further and she said no”.
Under cross-examination, Mr Hoy confirmed no allegations had been raised during the short meeting.
The audio recordings of police interviews with Jeffrey and Eleanor Donaldson after they were arrested in March 2024 were played to the jury as the trial entered its third week.
When asked by a detective about the circumstances of the alleged rape, he replied: “I’m sorry, but I can’t get my head around this notion.”
Asked about the incident in which Complainant A claimed he had used a light to stare at her, Donaldson said: “I wasn’t doing anything untoward.”
He told police: “I’ve answered all your questions… I’ve taken each situation that you’ve put to me and I do not accept the picture that is being painted here.”
In her police interview, Eleanor Donaldson said she was met with a “blank wall” from her husband when she repeatedly asked him about an incident in which he had been alone in a room with Complainant B.
Asked about the claim of rape, she told detectives: “I would say that didn’t happen. Absolutely not, oh my goodness.”
Asked about the allegations made by both complainants, Eleanor Donaldson said: “This is a massive, massive shock.”
Jeffrey Donaldson spent two days in the witness box giving evidence, where he repeatedly denied allegations of abuse by both women.
He said he was “crystal clear” that the rape claim is “simply not true”.
He described other claims that he had carried out sexual abuse as “just unbelievable”.
No other witnesses were called as part of his defence.
In her closing speech, Ms Walsh said there was “no reason” why the two women would lie about being abused.
She added: “What the evidence shows when it is pieced together is that they are telling the truth about what happened to them.”
But Jeffrey Donaldson’s barrister Kieran Vaughan KC said in his closing speech there were “significant and fundamental issues” with the credibility of each of the complainants.
He added: “They are not sufficiently reliable enough to drive you to a sure conclusion that he is guilty.”
The barrister for Eleanor Donaldson, Ian Turkington KC, urged the jury to “bring an end to this nightmare” for her.