Donaldson’s wife hit ‘blank wall’ asking husband about alleged victim – trial
Eleanor Donaldson arrives at Newry Crown Court for a no bill hearing where she is seeking to have two charges dismissed in the historical sex offences case involving her and her husband Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
Jeffrey Donaldson’s wife told police she was met with a “blank wall” when she repeatedly asked him about an incident where he had been alone in a room with an alleged victim of sexual abuse.
Eleanor Donaldson said what had happened had made her feel “uncomfortable” but insisted she had never witnessed or known about any inappropriate behaviour.
The jury of seven men and five women at Newry Crown Court have been hearing further police interviews with the Donaldsons following their arrest in March 2024 over alleged historical sexual offences.
Former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences.
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The charges include one count of rape and allegations of indecent assault and gross indecency, and span a time period between 1985 and 2008 involving two alleged victims.
Complainant A and B have both previously given evidence at the trial.
Both women allege they were abused as children.
Eleanor Donaldson, 60, from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending.
She is facing a trial of the facts and is not participating in the proceedings.
Donaldson sat in the dock at the back of the court while the recordings were played.
In her first interview with police, Eleanor Donaldson was asked if she was guilty of the offences for which she had been arrested. She replied no.
She then told police about an incident where she had gone to find her husband and he was in a room with Complainant B, who was a teenager at the time.
The court has previously heard B allege that the former MP had lifted her top and touched her breasts.
Eleanor Donaldson said: “I just sort of remember just looking at him and saying what are you doing.”
She said when she asked her husband about it, he said it “was nothing” and that he was “just talking”.
She added: “In the years that came after that I never had any cause for concern ever, I never felt that apart from thinking that that was strange and what was that about and I asked Jeffrey about it and he just dismissed it.
“I never had any other feeling that anything was wrong.”
She said: “I asked Jeffrey many times but he had never given me a reason for why he was there or what he was doing.
“I asked him many times and it never came to anything and he never gave me any answers.”
When asked by the detective, if she had a “clear view” of what had happened, she said: “I could just see that there were both standing there, but that was it.”
The detective asked her if she believed “something more” had been going on.
She said: “Yes, because I was uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable.”
She added: “Every time I did ask I was met with a blank wall, it was not coming out.
“I just lived to the best of my ability and then other times it would start eating at me again because I just wanted to get to the bottom of it and even though all those years had passed still to the back of my mind because that’s the type of person I am.”
The detective asked if she had ever witnessed any inappropriate behaviour between her husband and Complainant B.
She said: “No, absolutely nothing.”
The court previously heard that when Complainant B was a teenager she had visited the Christian Family Centre in Armoy where she met with Jeffrey Donaldson.
Referring to this meeting, Eleanor Donaldson said: “I didn’t know this at the time and I didn’t know it until many years had passed and in the course of conversation with him again, he said… the questions that you’re asking me, that has been dealt with.”
She said her husband told her he had “asked for forgiveness”, it was granted and “that was sorted”.
She said: “But I never knew what that was because he wouldn’t talk to me about it.”
Asked about the circumstances of an alleged incident where Complainant B claims she was raped by Jeffrey Donaldson, Eleanor Donaldson said: “I would say that didn’t happen. Absolutely not, oh my goodness.”
She told police she was “devastated” hearing about the allegation.
She added: “That’s totally outside my knowledge of what I would expect from him.”
Eleanor Donaldson also told police she had no awareness of allegations made by Complainant A that she was sexually abused when she was a child.
She said: “I’ve never been party or seen anything like that.”
Asked if she was aware of occasions where her husband had allegedly put his tongue in A’s mouth, she said: “Ugh, no.”
Asked about the allegations made by both complainants, Eleanor Donaldson said: “This is a massive, massive shock.”
Earlier, the jury had heard a recording of Jeffrey Donaldson’s final interview with police in 2024.
He said that a letter he had written to Complainant A was not an apology for sex abuse.
The trial previously heard that in 2020, Donaldson wrote to Complainant A expressing “regret” for the “hurt, pain and distress” he had caused her.
In her evidence, the woman said she thought the letter was an attempt to “apologise” for the alleged abuse.
He told police: “None of that is to do with any allegation or any action involving sexual abuse.”
He added: “I stand over everything I said in that letter and nowhere in that letter did I indicate nor was I alluding to incidents of sexual abuse.”
Asked if he believed the two complainants are lying, Donaldson said: “I’m saying that the specific allegations that have been put to me are untrue.”
A police officer asked him: “Do you feel you’ve had a fair opportunity to give your account?” He said: “Yeah, yes.”
The trial continues.
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