![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/jeffrey-donaldson-sexual-offences-trial-played-alleged-victim-s-police-interview.jpg\")
Jeffrey Donaldson appearing at Newry Crown Court (Elizabeth Cook\/PA)<\/p>\nThe sexual offences trial of Jeffrey Donaldson has heard a police interview with an alleged victim recorded weeks before the former DUP leader\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n
In the interview, the woman relates incidents of alleged abuse by Donaldson and said she was left \u201cfeeling dirty for a long time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Donaldson, 63, is accused of rape and several counts of gross indecency and of indecent assault.<\/p>\n
The ex-MP has pleaded not guilty to the 18 alleged offences.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Donaldson appearing at Newry Crown Court (Elizabeth Cook\/PA)<\/p>\n
The charges span a time period between 1985 and 2008 involving two alleged victims.<\/p>\n
Donaldson\u2019s wife, Eleanor Donaldson \u2013 from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband\u2019s alleged offending.<\/p>\n
She is facing a trial of the facts after Judge Paul Ramsey ruled her unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds.<\/p>\n
The trial of the facts will test the evidence in the case, but cannot result in a criminal conviction.<\/p>\n
![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780038317_643_jeffrey-donaldson-sexual-offences-trial-played-alleged-victim-s-police-interview.jpg\")
Eleanor Donaldson. Photo: PA.<\/p>\n
Evidence in the trial began on Thursday with the video of a police interview with Complainant A from March 2024, weeks before the Donaldsons were arrested, which was played to the jury of seven men and five women.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Donaldson, wearing a dark grey suit, sat in the dock between two court staff as the video was played.<\/p>\n
In the interview, the complainant said she had been of primary school age when Donaldson began to be \u201cphysical\u201d with her.<\/p>\n
She recalled waking up in the middle of the night on several occasions with a sexual feeling.<\/p>\n
She said she later started to have nightmares about \u201cadult men doing horrible things to children\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said from primary school age, Donaldson had put his hand up her top \u2013 and this \u201chappened for quite a while\u201d.<\/p>\n
In her interview, she said Donaldson made comments about the size of her breasts as she got older.<\/p>\n
She said she remembered a \u201csignificant event\u201d when she was a young teenager when Donaldson \u201cperched\u201d over the top of her and had looked at her \u201cprivate parts\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI couldn\u2019t move initially because I didn\u2019t know what had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said on another occasion Donaldson kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth.<\/p>\n
She said this and similar incidents were \u201cvery much laughed off as a joke\u201d.<\/p>\n
Complainant A said when she was in her 20s, she understood that the behaviour she claimed had taken place was \u201cnot normal\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI became very angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she had \u201cspent her life watching him in a public role, getting accolade after accolade\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the interview, she was asked by a police officer about her earliest memory of waking up in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI felt very dirty for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIt feels black, there is darkness around it, it is black in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trial, which is expected to last between three and four weeks, continues.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Donaldson, a former long-standing MP for Lagan Valley, was arrested and charged at the end of March 2024.<\/p>\n
He resigned as DUP leader and was suspended from the party after the allegations emerged.<\/p>\n
Weeks before his arrest, he had led the DUP back into devolved government at Stormont after a two-year boycott of the powersharing institutions.<\/p>\n
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie\/services\/helpline\/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999\/112. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sexual offences trial of Jeffrey Donaldson has heard a police interview with an alleged victim recorded weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-472632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472632","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=472632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}