Co Down<\/a>, is accused of 18 offences \u2013 one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency with or towards a child, and 13 counts of indecent assault on a female \u2013 on dates between 1987 and 2008.<\/p>\nThe 63-year-old denies all charges.<\/p>\n
He sat in the dock writing notes as prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh gave a summary of the evidence.<\/p>\n
Eleanor Donaldson (60), with the same address, is charged with five counts of aiding and abetting in connection with the charges faced by her husband. She denies the charges.<\/p>\n
Instead, she will face a trial of the facts, which will run concurrently with her husband\u2019s trial. A trial of the facts takes the place of a criminal trial where a court has ruled the defendant is medically unfit to stand trial.<\/p>\n
She was not present in court on Wednesday as she has been ruled unfit to stand trial on the basis of medical evidence.<\/p>\n
The jury was told by the prosecution barrister that parts of the alleged victims\u2019 evidence are remembered \u201cvery vividly\u201d while others are more \u201cfractured\u201d.<\/p>\n
Evidence given in police interviews on March 11th, 2024, by Complainant B related to the alleged abuse she experienced from childhood by Donaldson.<\/p>\n
There were two incidents that she \u201cremembered vividly\u201d because she \u201cfelt afraid\u201d.<\/p>\n
The first related to the alleged rape when she was pretending to be asleep and the defendant put his hands under her underwear.<\/p>\n
She recalls thinking, \u201cplease don\u2019t let anything happen\u201d.<\/p>\n
He then \u201cput his feet\u201d between her feet and allegedly raped her.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, she remembered \u201clooking out the skylight in the room\u201d and \u201cwanting to go home\u201d.<\/p>\n
The complainant \u201cdidn\u2019t sleep\u201d that night and remembers \u201cfeeling sick\u201d the next day, jurors were told.<\/p>\n
The second related to an incident when Jeffrey Donaldson lifted her top and felt her breasts.<\/p>\n
The incident was \u201cparticularly memorable\u201d because Eleanor Donaldson allegedly \u201cwalked in, looked at her and walked away\u201d, the jury was told.<\/p>\n
Donaldson kept \u201ctouching her breasts\u201d after Eleanor Donaldson had left.<\/p>\n
Jurors heard that Complainant B cannot remember how often the abuse happened, but it \u201chappened a lot\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always silent\u201d during the alleged abuse, the court was told.<\/p>\n
Allegations of childhood abuse made by Complainant A were also outlined by the prosecution barrister, with the abuse starting when she was seven or eight and stopping when she was about 13.<\/p>\n
While she found it hard to remember details, she remembered \u201cwaking up with sexual feelings\u201d and becoming sexually aware from a young age.<\/p>\n
From childhood, she had \u201cstrange dreams of men doing horrible things to her\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n
During one incident, Jeffrey Donaldson allegedly put his hand up her blouse and rubbed her breast area.<\/p>\n
Touching her in this way had \u201cbecome a very casual thing\u201d because it was \u201cdone very often\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn her mind, he (Donaldson) was showing her care\u201d.<\/p>\n
Comments were made about her physical appearance by Jeffrey Donaldson, particularly the size of her breasts.<\/p>\n
Complainant A recalled a specific incident when she woke to a \u201cbright light\u201d and a \u201cdark figure over her\u201d.<\/p>\n
She found her duvet was pulled off her and she wasn\u2019t wearing any underwear. Her \u201cnightie up to her chest line\u201d and she was \u201clying with her legs open\u201d.<\/p>\n
Complainant A recalled the defendant \u201clooking at her private parts\u201d with the light.<\/p>\n
She also alleged the defendant kissed her inappropriately when he put his tongue into her mouth and \u201cpushed it around\u201d.<\/p>\n
She recalled that he laughed and \u201csaid it was a joke\u201d.<\/p>\n
Complainant A did not realise these alleged incidents were inappropriate but \u201crecognises now\u201d it \u201cwasn\u2019t normal\u201d, the barrister said.<\/p>\n
The complainant subsequently asked the defendant, Jeffrey Donaldson, about his behaviour, and she said he \u201cnodded his head\u201d and looked at the floor but did not say anything.<\/p>\n
The prosecution barrister also told the jury they would hear police interviews from Jeffrey Donaldson and Eleanor Donaldson in which they denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
The claim that Jeffrey Donaldson had been in bed with Complainant B was \u201cunbelievable\u201d, he told police.<\/p>\n
He stated he did \u201cnot have a memory\u201d of the alleged rape happening and denied touching Complainant B in the \u201csexual way described\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Donaldson also denied the sex abuse alleged by Complainant A.<\/p>\n
The trial continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jurors in the trial of the former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson will hear about \u201cdifficult and traumatic incidents\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,203000,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-470067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sir-jeffrey-donaldson-court-case-pa2026","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}