An alleged victim of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Donaldson had nightmares about men doing “horrible things to children” and was left “feeling dirty for a long time”, a Northern Ireland court has heard.
The complainant made the allegations in a police interview played to the jury in the trial of the former MP and Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader, who is charged with sexual offences.
The jury at Newry crown court in County Down also heard that Donaldson wrote to the alleged victim in 2020 expressing “regret” for “all the hurt, pain and distress I have caused” and seeking forgiveness.
Donaldson, 63, faces 18 charges, including one count of rape, which span from 1985 to 2008 and involve two alleged victims. His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 60, is charged with aiding and abetting rape and indecent assault. Both deny all the charges.
The jury of five women and seven men was shown the interview that the complainant, known as Witness A, gave to police in March 2024 weeks before Donaldson was arrested, triggering his exit from politics and upheaval at Stormont.
In the interview, the complainant said she was of primary school age when Donaldson began to be “physical” with her and put his hands up her top. She recalled waking up in the night on several occasions with a sexual feeling and having nightmares about “men doing horrible things to children”.
Asked by a police officer about her earliest memory of waking up in the night, she said: “I felt very dirty for a long time.” She added: “It feels black, there is darkness around it, it is black in my head.”
As she got older Donaldson made comments about the size of her breasts and when she was a young teenager he had looked at her “private parts” with a bright light, possibly a torch, she told police. “I couldn’t move initially because I didn’t know what had happened.”
On another occasion she said he kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth, and when she later complained he laughed it off as a joke, she said.
Witness A told police that in her 20s she understood that the alleged behaviour was “not normal” yet she had “spent her life watching him in a public role, getting accolade after accolade”. She said: “I became very angry.”
After the interview was played in court the prosecutor, Rosemary Walsh, questioned Witness A, who appeared via video link.
Walsh read out a letter that the complainant said Donaldson had written to her in June 2020. It expressed “regret” and took “full responsibility” for “all the hurt, pain and distress I have caused”.
The jury heard that Donaldson described himself in the letter as a “sinner” who had not addressed his “sinful nature for far too many years” and would “regret this to my dying day”. The letter added: “It is my hope, that in time, you will find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Asked about the letter, Witness A said: “I felt he was trying to apologise for perhaps the abuse which had occurred, but he didn’t want to say that formally in writing. It felt like an apology letter and it felt like it was written with a lot of guilt.”
Donaldson, in a grey suit, sat in the dock flanked by two court staff. Eleanor Donaldson, who has been judged unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds, was not present. She is facing a trial of the facts, which tests the evidence but cannot result in a criminal conviction.
The trial started on Tuesday and is expected to last about four weeks.
