A jury at Newry Crown Court has heard a police interview in which a woman describes the moment she alleges Sir Jeffrey Donaldson raped her as a child. The complainant, referred to as Complainant B, appeared via video link as her Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) interview, recorded in March 2024, was played to the court.
Details of the Allegations
The woman, who frequently became emotional during the interview, said she was “sexually abused by an adult” while growing up. She recalled two specific incidents. In the first, she claimed Donaldson put his hands down her underwear, pulled her legs apart, and sexually assaulted her. In the second, she said he lifted her top and touched her breasts. When asked about other incidents, she remembered “his hands down my pants a lot.”
She told police she could not tell anyone and confided only in her imaginary friend. Asked for the name of her alleged abuser, she replied, “Jeffrey Donaldson MP.”
First Incident
Describing the first incident, which she said occurred when she was of primary school age, the complainant recalled being “really still” and hearing only his breath. She remembered Donaldson putting his hands down her pants and thinking, “please, let this be it.” She said he placed his feet between hers and pulled her legs apart. “I kept thinking it is OK, it will be over soon… I remember hearing his breathing,” she added.
The complainant then said she felt “something different” and that Donaldson was on top of her, slightly to the right. “First of all I didn’t know what it was because I could still feel his hands,” she said. She then alleged he sexually assaulted her. “I don’t know if it continued or if that was it. I just kept my eyes closed. I just remember hearing his heavy breathing,” she testified.
Background of the Case
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, 63, a former long-standing MP for Lagan Valley and ex-leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences spanning 1985 to 2008 and involving two alleged victims. His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denies several charges of aiding and abetting his alleged offending and faces a trial of the facts.
Donaldson 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. The trial continues.
