{"id":477580,"date":"2026-06-01T14:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477580\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T14:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:29:08","slug":"eleanor-donaldson-did-nothing-after-being-told-of-incident-with-husband-court-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477580\/","title":{"rendered":"Eleanor Donaldson \u2018did nothing\u2019 after being told of incident with husband, court hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who has accused Jeffrey Donaldson<\/a> of sexually abusing her as a child has claimed his wife, Eleanor Donaldson, \u201cdid nothing about it\u201d after being made aware he allegedly shone a light at her genitals, Newry Crown Court has heard.<\/p>\n

On the third day of evidence at the former DUP<\/a> leader\u2019s sex offences trial, a defence barrister for Eleanor Donaldson asked the woman about an incident when she alleged she was woken in the middle of night by a \u201cbright light\u201d which was shone at her \u201cprivate parts\u201d by Jeffrey Donaldson.<\/p>\n

Jurors heard that the woman, known as Complainant A, told Eleanor Donaldson about it.<\/p>\n

She described him as a \u201cweirdo\u201d to Eleanor Donaldson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that moment I was terrified, I didn\u2019t know how else to describe it,\u201d she told the court on Monday.<\/p>\n

Under cross-examination by Eleanor Donaldson\u2019s barrister, Complainant A \u2013 whose identity is protected by law \u2013 confirmed that the alleged abuse was discussed with her the following day.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe (Eleanor Donaldson) was checking if I was telling the truth and once she identified I was telling the truth she did nothing about it,\u201d the alleged victim told barrister Ian Turkington.<\/p>\n

The complainant said she was aged 13 or 14 at the time.<\/p>\n

The woman also claimed she told Eleanor Donaldson about a separate incident in which she claimed Jeffrey Donaldson kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth.<\/p>\n

Eleanor Donaldson \u201claughed it off as if it was a joke\u201d, Complainant A said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her he had just kissed me, put his tongue in my mouth and moved it around,\u201d she told the jury of seven men and five women.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was responded with, \u2018it was just a joke\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defence barrister referred to a police interview in March 2024, when Complainant A reported the alleged abuse.<\/p>\n

Turkington put it to the witness the police note stated that it was \u201call sort of laughed off\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t laughed off by me . . . I can absolutely guarantee you I was not laughing at all,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

The defence barrister asked her: \u201cAre you making this up as you go along?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not. I find that ridiculous to even infer that,\u201d Complainant A replied.<\/p>\n

The woman is one of two alleged female victims who have accused Jeffrey Donaldson of sexually abusing them as children.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Donaldson (63), with an address in Dromore, Co Down, 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, on dates between 1985 and 2008. He denies the charges.<\/p>\n

His wife, Eleanor Donaldson (60), of the same address, is charged with five counts of aiding and abetting in connection with the charges faced by her husband \u2013 charges she denies.<\/p>\n

Eleanor Donaldson is not present in court as she has been ruled unfit to stand trial on the basis of medical evidence. She will instead face a trial of the facts \u2013 which replaces a criminal trial in such circumstances \u2013 to run concurrently with her husband\u2019s trial, which began last week.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday, Turkington referred to counselling sessions Complainant A received which included a note about her memory being \u201cquite foggy\u201d.<\/p>\n

He asked her if her memory of the alleged abuse in relation to the kissing was \u201cquite foggy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I wouldn\u2019t agree with that,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

She said there were other \u201ckissing\u201d incidents but the one that she had \u201cthe most detail on\u201d was the \u201cone that lasted the longest\u201d when Jeffrey Donaldson put his tongue in her mouth.<\/p>\n

It was the one she had told Eleanor Donaldson about, the jury was told.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the one where I have very clear recollection of. Let me precise, there may have been [other kisses].<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not putting numbers [on it]; it happened a number of times. Several occasions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this one is the most significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who has accused Jeffrey Donaldson of sexually abusing her as a child has claimed his wife,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,14062,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-477580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-jeffrey-donaldson","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\/477580","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=477580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}