“It’s not quite as sultry as it was last week,” Judge Paul Ramsey stated in reference to the heat inside the courtroom as the second week of the Jeffrey Donaldson trial got underway on Monday morning.
He might have been right, in that the stifling temperatures of the previous week had abated, but despite the grey, damp day outside Newry courthouse it was still warm enough that the judge set his traditional wig aside for the day’s hearing.
Counsel remained without wigless too, including the barrister representing Elanor Donaldson, Ian Turkington KC, who began his cross-examination of Complainant A – one of two women who allege the former DUP leader abused them as a child.
The woman had spent the end of the first week of the trial facing a grilling from Mr Donaldson’s barrister, Kieran Vaughan KC. On Monday, Donaldson continued to observe proceedings from the dock.
As she is standing a trial of facts, and not a regular criminal trial herself due to the judge’s previous ruling on her mental health, Eleanor Donaldson – facing charges relating to aiding and abetting – was not present in the courtroom to scrutinise what became an at-times an intense and probing cross-examination.
Eleanor Donaldson is the subject of a trial of the facts, and is not appearing during hearings at Newry Crown Court PICTURE: LIAM MCBURNEY (Liam McBurney/PA)
This would culminate in Complainant A – who as in the first week gave her evidence via videolink from another location – being accused by the KC of “making this up as you go along”.
But the hearing began calmly enough with questions over the chronology of the witness’s disclosures about the allegations before contacting police.
The focus then moved to aspects of her Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) statement to police that would go on to form the basis of the prosecution’s charges relating to her.
One thing Complainant A wished to make clear to the KC, as he questioned her on certain points, was summed up succinctly in one response: “I think you’ll agree that an ABE interview is an extremely stressful process.”
There followed a back and forth over the “notes” she had brought to police for this interview, or as the senior lawyer put it, “came armed with”.
Read more: Jeffrey Donaldson trial told former DUP leader’s wife ‘did nothing about’ one alleged incident
This earned a cold response from Complainant A, as she replied: “I did not come armed with reams of A4 pages,” before explaining how the notes were mostly about dates of the allegations, and were made on a smartphone.
Pressed on preparations for the ABE interview, she stated: “I have had my entire life to prepare.”
Donaldson, meanwhile, was doing noticeably more note-taking in the dock than he did on Friday, as he followed his wife’s barrister’s questioning.
The witness’s memory was a key theme of Mr Turkington’s cross-examination, with the KC asking if she agreed it was “foggy” – a term she had used herself in her police interview.
“With child abuse, often there’s an issue with memory at times,” she said, adding: “I have tried to remember these events and I have tried to convey them to the best of my ability.”
Following further exchanges, the woman conceded that she accepted her memory could be “poor”.
The barrister asked the complainant at one stage, during a discussion about what she had and had not told police: “Are you making this up as you go along?”
She replied “absolutely not”, adding it would be “ridiculous” to infer that.
Jeffrey Donaldson pictured outside Newry Courthouse on Monday as his trial over alleged historical sex offences continues PICTURE: LIAM MCBURNEY (Liam McBurney/PA)
The KC asked Complainant A about her claims regarding Eleanor Donaldson’s presence in a house during an alleged assault while the witness had been sitting on Mr Donaldson’s knee.
Eleanor Donaldson was said by the witness to have been in an adjoining kitchen during the alleged assault, but would have had a view into the room, while also frequently “popping” her head in to watch a Formula One race on the TV.
Questioning over exactly what constituted Mrs Donaldson being in the same room at the time led to an increasingly fraught exchange, in which the barrister asked the woman: “Can I suggest you’re spectacularly backtracking in your evidence?”
Mr Turkington continued, echoing his earlier question: “You’re making this up as you go along, isn’t that so?”
The woman was adamant, however, stating that Eleanor Donaldson “may have saw” what was alleged to be happening, adding: “I will not be changing anything I say.”
As the dispute continued, Judge Ramsey urged both to refer to a photograph of the room in which the assault is alleged to have occurred.
As the morning session drew towards its conclusion, the barrister quizzed the witness over why she didn’t disclose to police the claim she revealed last week under cross-examination that she had been abused by another man as a child.
Referring to her claims regarding the Donaldsons, she said: “This was my primary focus at the time.”
Another day in the trial wrapped up early after the lunch break as the witness’s cross examinations concluded.
Tuesday will see the first cross-examination of Complainant B, the second woman accusing Mr Donaldson of historical sex abuse.
“You’ve heard a lot of evidence over the last few days, but there’s a lot more to come,” the judge warned the jury as he dismissed them with another warning not to discuss the case outside the court.
“I’m probably saying it until you’re tired hearing it,” he told the 12 men and women before they left.