Donaldson trial: Complainant B testifies alleged rape 'will live with her forever'

A woman alleging childhood sexual abuse by Jeffrey Donaldson described two incidents in a video-link appearance at Newry Crown Court. The ex-DUP leader denies all 18 charges.

Complainant B recalls alleged abuse at Donaldson trial: 'Nothing will change what that man did to me'

A woman who alleges she was sexually abused as a child by Jeffrey Donaldson told Newry Crown Court on Tuesday that the memory of an alleged rape will stay with her for the rest of her life, BreakingNews.ie reports.

Complainant B, one of two alleged victims in the trial of the former DUP leader and Lagan Valley MP, did not appear in person. She gave evidence via video link while a police interview recorded in March 2024 was played to a jury of seven men and five women.

Donaldson, 63, sat in the dock at the rear of the courtroom. He shook his head at various points during the evidence. He has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences spanning the period between 1985 and 2008.

'I couldn't tell anybody'

In the police interview, the complainant said she had been "sexually abused by an adult" while growing up and recalled two incidents in particular.

She described the first as occurring when she was of primary school age. Donaldson, she said, put his hands down her underwear and pulled her legs apart before sexually assaulting her.

"I remember being really still and all I could hear was his breath," she said.

She added: "I kept thinking 'it is OK, it will be over soon' … I remember hearing his breathing."

On the alleged rape, she said: "I don't know if it continued or if that was it. I just kept my eyes closed."

Asked by police for the name of her alleged abuser, she named "Jeffrey Donaldson MP."

She said she had been unable to disclose the abuse at the time: "I remember I couldn't tell anybody, I remember telling my imaginary friend."

The complainant said she also remembered Donaldson's "hands down my pants a lot" on other occasions.

Second incident recalled

The second incident, she said, took place when she was of secondary school age. She alleged Donaldson stood "right in front" of her, lifted her top and touched her breasts. She told the court that Eleanor Donaldson, Jeffrey's wife, had witnessed part of that incident and "walked away."

Complainant B also told the jury that Donaldson had later apologised to her at a meeting arranged at a Christian centre in Co Antrim. "He apologised for what he had done to me in the past," she said.

Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband's alleged offending and is facing a trial of the facts.

Cross-examination: 'It is quite naive of you to say that'

Complainant B was then cross-examined by Kieran Vaughan, barrister for Jeffrey Donaldson.

Vaughan challenged her account of confiding in an imaginary friend while playing with a Christmas gift as a child, saying: "It is a detail you have conjured up to make your account more plausible."

She replied: "I disagree with you on that."

The barrister pointed to an inconsistency between the age she gave a counsellor and the age she later gave police when describing when the abuse occurred. He told her: "I am suggesting none of this happened."

Complainant B responded: "It is quite naive for you to say that. Everything I am saying is the truth … no matter how many questions people ask me it will never change that."

Vaughan told her she was "in the position now that you just have to stick with the story you gave." She replied: "Nothing will change what that man did to me."

On the alleged rape, Vaughan said her recollection was "very poor." Complainant B rejected that characterisation. "My recollection is really vivid because I live with that every day," she said.

She acknowledged she could not recall her precise age at the time of the alleged incident, but said: "The actions that night I will never forget, what happened that night will live with me forever."

She continued: "What did I do, what did I wear, what did I say to make that OK?"

When Vaughan suggested the incident "did not happen" and asked why she had not told anyone at the time, she said: "It was my biggest mistake not telling anybody back then … I regret that every day. I didn't know the words, I knew it was wrong."

On the second alleged incident, the barrister put it to her that Donaldson had not touched her inappropriately. Again challenged on her silence at the time, she said: "I was this kid who had stuff done to her that shouldn't have been done by an adult. I wish I could go back in time and shout and scream and do something. I have to live with that. I was a kid, I didn't know what to do, so therefore that kid did nothing."

Background

Donaldson was arrested and charged at the end of March 2024. He resigned as DUP leader and was suspended from the party after the allegations emerged. Weeks before his arrest, he had led the DUP back into devolved government at Stormont, ending a two-year boycott of the powersharing institutions.

The trial resumes on Wednesday.

Source: BreakingNews.ie