{"id":479471,"date":"2026-06-02T16:49:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/479471\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T16:49:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:49:28","slug":"alleged-victim-told-police-jeffrey-donaldson-apologised-for-what-hed-done-to-her-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/479471\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged victim told police Jeffrey Donaldson apologised for \u2018what he\u2019d done\u2019 to her \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who accused Jeffrey Donaldson<\/a> of raping her as a child told police he apologised to her for \u201cwhat he\u2019d done to me in the past\u201d, Newry Crown Court has heard.<\/p>\n

She said the \u201capology\u201d took place at a meeting arranged at the Christian Family Centre in Armoy, Co Antrim<\/a>, when she was 17 or 18 years old. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe came and apologised to me \u2026 he apologised for what he\u2019d done to me in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by police how she knew the apology was for the alleged sexual abuse, the witness, known as Complainant B, said it was because she told the daughter of the couple who ran the centre, Linda and Davey Hoy, about the abuse, and she told her parents. <\/p>\n

Complainant B told police the defendant\u2019s wife, Eleanor Donaldson, contacted her through an intermediary in 2023 to tell her she \u201cwanted to meet to apologise to me\u201d. <\/p>\n

Complainant B said Linda Hoy sent her a message saying Eleanor Donaldson \u201cneeds my forgiveness to move forward\u201d. She did not respond to the request. <\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday, a police interview with the complainant, in which she alleged the former DUP leader raped her as a primary schoolchild, was played at his trial. <\/p>\n

Complainant B told police she remembered him \u201cputting his hands inside my pants\u201d and then \u201cpulling my legs apart with his two feet\u201d. <\/p>\n

She told police she \u201cwas still pretending to be asleep hoping it would stop\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt really, really sick.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said that while the alleged abuse was taking place, she remembered thinking \u201cplease let that be it\u201d because \u201cit had happened before\u201d. <\/p>\n

She described how he then raped her. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to scream out, leave me alone, but I didn\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n

She remembered his breathing \u201cwasn\u2019t just in and out, it was laboured and panting\u201d. <\/p>\n

The following day she felt \u201csick\u201d with a \u201csore stomach\u201d and did not want to go on an outing. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone made fun of me for not wanting to go and I couldn\u2019t tell them why.\u201d<\/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

On the fourth day of evidence in his trial at Newry Crown Court on Tuesday morning, jurors listened to the police interview with Complainant B in which she described two specific incidents, the alleged rape and a second assault in which she said the defendant followed her into a room and \u201cclosed the door\u201d. <\/p>\n

She claimed he \u201clifted up my top and started playing with my breasts and stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n

Donaldson\u2019s wife Eleanor \u201cwalked in\u201d but \u201cturned round and walked out\u201d, closing the door behind her, the complainant said. <\/p>\n

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 is instead facing a trial of the facts, which replaces a criminal trial in such circumstances. This is running concurrently with her husband\u2019s trial, which began last week. <\/p>\n

In the police interview, the complainant said Jeffrey Donaldson \u201cput his hands in my pants a lot\u201d. <\/p>\n

She said she \u201ccouldn\u2019t tell anybody\u201d about the alleged abuse but she remembered \u201ctelling my imaginary friend\u201d. <\/p>\n

The trial continues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who accused Jeffrey Donaldson of raping her as a child told police he apologised to her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[80306,42,14062,43,2443,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-479471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-antrim","tag-headlines","tag-jeffrey-donaldson","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479471","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=479471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}