One of two women who claims Jeffrey Donaldson abused her as a child has told his trial she blames herself for what happened to his second alleged victim because she did not go to the police at the time.
Complainant B broke down as she said: “If I’d done that, it wouldn’t have happened [to her]. It’s my fault.”
Jeffrey Donaldson (63) with an address in Dromore, Co Down, is accused of 18 offences – 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.
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 – charges she denies.
RM Block
Eleanor Donaldson is not present in court as she has been ruled unfit to stand trial on the basis of medical evidence and is instead facing a trial of the facts. This is running concurrently with her husband’s trial, which began in Newry Crown Court last week.
The jury has previously heard evidence from the woman, known as Complainant B, who alleges Jeffrey Donaldson raped and sexually abused her as a child.
On Wednesday, Jeffrey Donaldson’s barrister, Kieran Vaughan, questioned Complainant B – whose identity is protected by law – about a conversation with a pastor. He said the pastor urged her to go to the police about the alleged abuse.
“Do you remember him saying, ‘Shall I go to the police?’,” he said.
“No sir, I don’t remember that,” the witness replied.
Vaughan claimed Complainant B then said to the pastor: “Don’t do that, don’t go to the police, if you do that, I’ll tell them it’s all a lie.”
“I don’t remember saying that,” the witness replied. “If I did, it’s the stupidest thing I ever said.
“I should have ... said ‘please go, I’ll go with you’. I should have said that.”
The barrister put it to her that she should have gone to the police, to which she replied: “I should have.”
She added that she was “so afraid” of what would happen if she did go to the police and was “embarrassed” about things she had done as a teenager.
Complainant B was questioned about drug use and the theft of money when she was about 16. She admitted she had used ecstasy and marijuana and had taken around £500.
This was, the defence barrister said, the “context” which led to her being sent to the Christian Family Centre in Armoy, Co Antrim – an experience she described as “life-changing” and “probably one of the best things that happened to me”.
He asked Complainant B about an alleged “apology” from Jeffrey Donaldson, a former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, during a meeting with her while she was at the centre.
The court heard earlier this week that the complainant told police Jeffrey Donaldson “came and apologised to me ... he apologised for what he’d done to me in the past”.
On Wednesday, Vaughan asked her about the meeting and if she remembered saying to Jeffrey Donaldson that he “hadn’t made you comfortable with the relationship at the time”.
The defence barrister said Jeffrey Donaldson had said: “If that’s the way I made you feel, I apologise.”
“No, I don’t remember that at all,” the complainant said.
The defence barrister also questioned why she had contact with Jeffrey Donaldson on a number of occasions as an adult given her allegations he sexually abused her.
The complainant replied: “I still don’t know why I did it, but I did.” She added “none of it changes what happened when I was younger”.
On Wednesday afternoon Complainant B was questioned by Eleanor Donaldson’s defence barrister, Ian Turkington, who put it to the complainant that “at no stage” did his client facilitate the alleged rape and that this was “a figment of your imagination”.
“That’s not true, what I’m saying is the truth.”
He also said Eleanor Donaldson had not witnessed an alleged incident in which the complainant claimed Jeffrey Donaldson followed her into a room and “lifted up my top and started playing with my breasts and stuff.”
“She did, and I saw her, and I saw her walk away and close the door,” the complainant replied.
Turkington said Eleanor Donaldson “readily accepts some of what you’re saying happened” and that the complainant had been in the room with Jeffrey Donaldson but she “never saw anything inappropriate.”
He said Eleanor Donaldson had asked Jeffrey Donaldson about the incident “many times” as she had not seen anything specific but there was “something she didn’t like going on.”
Eleanor Donaldson told police “it didn’t sit well with me but I couldn’t get anywhere with it”, her barrister said.
The defence barrister put it to the complainant that “all she could see was his back and your head.”
“She had a clear line of sight,” the witness replied.
The barrister suggested to her that this interpretation was based on a message from Eleanor Donaldson years later in which, the complainant said in evidence earlier in the trial, she “tried to contact me to apologise for not doing anything.”
“You had no idea what Eleanor Donaldson did or did not see until you received that text message,” the barrister said.
“No, the text message confirmed what I had always thought,” the complainant said. “I saw her look at me that night. She saw what he was doing to me.”
The trial continues.
