{"id":530256,"date":"2026-06-11T18:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/530256\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T18:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:06:13","slug":"jeffrey-donaldson-says-two-women-who-accused-him-of-sexual-abuse-are-lying-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/530256\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Donaldson says two women who accused him of sexual abuse are lying \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeffrey Donaldson<\/a> has told the jury in his trial that he does not accept any allegations that he sexually abused two women while they were children and they are lying. <\/p>\n

He suggested to the jury that one of the women, Complainant B, may have been motivated by resentment as he was about to become an MP while she was dealing with drug problems at a Christian centre in Armoy. <\/p>\n

Under cross-examination on Thursday afternoon, prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh put it to the former DUP<\/a> leader that his defence was that the women were telling \u201clies\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Donaldson replied. <\/p>\n

Questioning him about the allegations made by Complainant B \u2013 in connection with whom Donaldson faces 10 charges, including the most serious, that of rape \u2013 the prosecution barrister asked him \u201cwhy do you think she has told all these various serious lies?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I knew,\u201d Donaldson replied, adding that he said the allegation had first been made around 1997, when he was \u201cgoing forward to become an MP \u2026 it may be [Complainant B] saw that”. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe sees I\u2019m on the up and up as an aspiring member of parliament, maybe she resents that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He repeatedly rejected the suggestion by the prosecution barrister that he had sexually abused both women, saying \u201cthis did not happen\u201d. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, the former DUP leader, wearing a blue suit and red tie, took the stand to give evidence in his own defence on the thirteenth day of his trial on charges of child sex offences at Newry<\/a> Crown Court. <\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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 and will instead face a trial of the facts \u2013 which replaces a criminal trial in such circumstances. <\/p>\n

Asked by defence barrister Kieran Vaughan if he accepted any of the allegations of abuse, he replied \u201cno\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Donaldson was then questioned by the defence barrister about the specific allegations made by the two complainants. <\/p>\n

In regard to a claim by Complainant B that he had been touching her breasts and Eleanor Donaldson walked in and saw what was going on, Jeffrey Donaldson said: \u201cThe idea I was standing in a room with a child with her clothes pulled up and feeling her chest and my wife walked in and saw that is just unbelievable. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe would have been very angry. She would have intervened immediately, because that is the nature of my wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am absolutely clear there is no situation where that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donaldson was also asked about a letter of \u201capology\u201d he had written to Complainant A in 2020. <\/p>\n

The complainant previously told the trial she received a letter from Jeffrey Donaldson in which he described himself as a \u201csinner\u201d and regretted \u201call the hurt, pain and distress I have caused\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said it \u201cfelt like an apology \u2026 he was trying to apologise for perhaps the abuse that had occurred, but he didn\u2019t want to say that formally in writing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked by Vaughan if the letter referred \u201cin any way\u201d to abuse, Donaldson replied: \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had \u201cnever done anything of that nature\u201d and it was \u201cnot the reason this letter was written\u201d and it was about \u201cinfidelity\u201d. <\/p>\n

The jury heard Donaldson had a brief affair in 2008 with a \u201clady, a divorcee in London\u201d and had moved out of his family home for a period of time in 2020 after a bugging device planted in his car revealed \u201cflirtatious messages\u201d between him and a constituent. <\/p>\n

Asked about a reference in the letter to his \u201csinful nature\u201d, Donaldson replied: \u201cWe\u2019re all sinners, Mr Vaughan. I am a sinner, every day \u2026 we seek God\u2019s forgiveness.\u201d <\/p>\n

Questioned about a meeting between Donaldson and Complainant B at the Christian Family Centre in Armoy, Co Antrim, in 1997, at which she claimed he apologised for the alleged abuse, Donaldson said he expressed that \u201cif she felt uncomfortable or unhappy with our relationship, I was sorry for that\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said \u201cnothing\u201d was put to him suggesting a claim of sexual abuse. \u201cThe word allegation wasn\u2019t even mentioned at that meeting. There would have been no reason for it to be put to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple claims made by Complainant A were also put to Donaldson by the defence barrister, which he rejected. <\/p>\n

In regard to an allegation he had kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth, he said: \u201cWhy would I kiss a child using my tongue? That\u2019s just ridiculous. That just did not ever happen.\u201d <\/p>\n

The trial continues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Donaldson has told the jury in his trial that he does not accept any allegations that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,17927,4776,18,13,14,6,19,17,41435,11,12,15,16,5,954,7,8],"class_list":["post-530256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-down","tag-dup-links","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jeffrey-donaldson","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116732807819972258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}