A woman who claims she was raped as a child by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has told a jury that the alleged incident will stay with her forever. The complainant informed Newry Crown Court of hearing the former DUP leader’s “heavy breathing” during the alleged sexual assault.
A police interview with the second alleged victim in Donaldson’s sexual offences trial was played in court before she was cross-examined. The former MP, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences spanning from 1985 to 2008 involving two alleged victims. Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending and is facing a trial of the facts.
Complainant B, one of the two alleged victims, appeared via video link. Her ABE (achieving best evidence) interview with police, recorded in March 2024, was played to the jury of seven men and five women on Tuesday morning. Jeffrey Donaldson sat in the dock at the rear of the courtroom, occasionally shaking his head during the evidence.
In the interview, the complainant said she was “sexually abused by an adult” while growing up, particularly recalling two incidents. She became emotional frequently. In the first, she claimed Donaldson put his hands down her underwear, pulled her legs apart, and sexually assaulted her. In the second, when she was slightly older, she said Donaldson “lifted up my top” and touched her breasts. Asked about other incidents, she remembered “his hands down my pants a lot.” She said, “I remember I couldn’t tell anybody, I remember telling my imaginary friend.” When asked for the name of her alleged abuser, she said “Jeffrey Donaldson MP.”
Regarding the first incident, which she said occurred when she was of primary school age, she stated: “I remember being really still and all I could hear was his breath.” She recalled Donaldson putting his hands down her pants and thinking “please, let this be it.” She said he put his feet between her feet and pulled her legs apart. “I kept thinking ‘it is OK, it will be over soon’ … I remember hearing his breathing.” She then felt “something different” and said he sexually assaulted her. “I don’t know if it continued or if that was it,” she added, noting she kept her eyes closed and just remembered “hearing his heavy breathing.”
The second incident, when she was of secondary school age, involved Donaldson lifting up her top and “playing with my breasts” while standing “right in front” of her. She said Eleanor Donaldson witnessed part of the incident and “walked away.”
Complainant B later told the jury that Donaldson had apologised to her at a meeting arranged at a Christian centre in Co Antrim years later. “He apologised for what he had done to me in the past,” she said.
During cross-examination by Kieran Vaughan KC, barrister for Jeffrey Donaldson, the barrister referred to her claim of telling her imaginary friend about the abuse while playing with a Christmas present. He said, “It is a detail you have conjured up to make your account more plausible.” She responded, “I disagree with you on that.” The barrister highlighted an inconsistency in the age she told a counsellor versus police. He said, “I am suggesting none of this happened.” Complainant B replied, “It is quite naive for you to say that. Everything I am saying is the truth … no matter how many questions people ask me it will never change that.” When he suggested she was “in the position now that you just have to stick with the story you gave,” she said, “Nothing will change what that man did to me.”
The barrister noted she remembered two incidents “vividly” but was “less certain” about other events. She said, “I know that they happened, I just don’t want to remember details.” Regarding the alleged rape, he said her recollection was “very poor.” She responded, “My recollection is really vivid because I live with that every day.” When he pointed out she could not remember her age at the time, she said, “The actions that night I will never forget, what happened that night will live with me forever.” She added, “What did I do, what did I wear, what did I say to make that OK?”
Mr Vaughan suggested the incident “did not happen” and asked why she did not tell anyone. She said, “It was my biggest mistake not telling anybody back then … I regret that every day. I didn’t know the words, I knew it was wrong.” Turning to the second incident, the barrister said the defence case was that Donaldson had not touched her inappropriately. She said, “I was this kid who had stuff done to her that shouldn’t have been done by an adult. I wish I could go back in time and shout and scream and do something. I have to live with that. I was a kid, I didn’t know what to do, so therefore that kid did nothing.”
The trial resumes on Wednesday. Jeffrey Donaldson, a former long-standing MP for Lagan Valley, was arrested and charged at the end of March 2024. He resigned as DUP leader and was suspended from the party after the allegations emerged. Weeks before his arrest, he had led the DUP back into devolved government at Stormont after a two-year boycott of the powersharing institutions.
