Jurors in the trial of Jeffrey Donaldson have been told that the two women who have accused him of abusing them as children are “not sufficiently reliable enough” for them to reach a guilty verdict.
Delivering his closing arguments at Newry Crown Court on Wednesday, a defence barrister for the former DUP leader said the jury of seven men and five women must “ignore the noise” surrounding the case.
“Focus on the evidence and when you focus on the evidence we say you will see significant and fundamental issues with each of these complainants,” Kieran Vaughan said.
“They are not sufficiently reliable enough to drive you to a sure conclusion that he is guilty.”
The alleged victims in the case, known as Complainant A and Complainant B, claim that Jeffrey Donaldson abused them during a time period spanning the mid-1980s and 2008.
The former Lagan Valley MP denies all sex offences charges against him, including one count of rape.
Donaldson sat in the dock as flanked by two custody sergeants as Vaughan began the final part of his closing speech, which he started on Tuesday afternoon.
The defence barrister focused on the allegations of Complainant A, the younger of the two women, who he described as a “very unreliable witness”.
Allegations made by Complainant B about a childhood rape by Donaldson “almost defies belief,” the defence barrister said on Tuesday.
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.
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.
On Wednesday, Vaughan referenced three sets of abuse allegations by Complainant A, which included Jeffrey Donaldson allegedly kissing her with his tongue, touching her breasts and an incident in which she claimed a light was shone at her genitals.
The defence barrister said the allegations were “effectively a misunderstanding” of a young girl who was “troubled”, suffered nightmares and had sexual feelings from a young age.
In relation to the incident in which the complainant allegedly woke up and found Donaldson shining a bright light at her “private parts”, jurors were told it “amounts to nothing”.
Vaughan said that during his cross-examination of the witness, she told him she was “very confused” about this incident.
In medical notes, she said her memory was “very foggy”, he added.
“We say it has percolated in her head for many years subsequent to that and she has been unsure about what has happened,” the defence barrister told the jury.
“She is not sure about the very thing the prosecution invite you to be sure about.
“We say the evidence shows that nothing happened.”
He said she had “proven herself to be a very, very unreliable witness. I don’t say that lightly.”
Claims by Complainant A during cross-examination that Eleanor Donaldson saw her husband rub the complainant’s breasts but failed to intervene “lacked any semblance of credibility”, the defence barrister said.
This information was not disclosed during police interviews, which demonstrated the witness was “capable of telling the most awful of untruths”, Vaughan told the court.
In Complainant A’s evidence about a letter she received from Jeffrey Donaldson in 2020 in which he expressed regret for the “hurt, pain and distress” caused, there was a lack of “context”, jurors heard.
Earlier in the trial, the prosecution said the handwritten letter was interpreted as a letter of apology for the alleged abuse suffered by Complainant A.
“The context is an affair Jeffrey Donaldson had in 2008,” Vaughan said.
There were also “flirtatious messages” with a constituent in 2020 that led to Eleanor Donaldson having Jeffrey Donaldson’s car bugged with a listening device, the court was told.
“He had been married to his wife for 39 years and it was the first time he was asked to leave the home; he was kicked out,” Vaughan said.
“That’s the proper context in which that [letter] was written.”
Omitting details of Donaldson’s infidelity to police was “concerning”, said the defence barrister, adding that it was the “hallmark of a witness who is leaving certain things out”.
An incident in 2021, when Jeffrey Donaldson “supposedly confessed” to the abuse when confronted by Complainant A, “just didn’t happen”, said Vaughan.
Jurors were told that when they consider the evidence of the two complainants, they must think of them as “connected” witnesses.
The two women met in January 2024 and went to the police “separately but on same day” on March 7th of that year, to report the allegations.
Their age span relating to the alleged offences…
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