Prosecutors began outlining their case against former Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson at Newry Crown Court on May 27, 2026. Two women allege that he committed sexual offences against them when they were children. Donaldson, 63, pleaded not guilty to all 18 charges, including rape, gross indecency and indecent assault.
Prosecution barrister Rosie Walsh KC told the jury of five women and seven men that one complainant said the alleged abuse began while she was at primary school and continued for years. The second said she believed the alleged incidents involving her occurred at a similar age. The charges concern alleged conduct between 1985 and 2008.
The first complainant accused Donaldson of rape and several acts of indecent assault. The court heard that she later sought support and told several people as she entered adulthood. A meeting with Donaldson was arranged in January 1997, although the prosecution said no specific allegations were discussed there. After his March 2024 arrest, Donaldson described the rape accusation as unbelievable and denied that detailed claims had been put to him at the earlier meeting.
The second complainant alleged multiple incidents of inappropriate touching and kissing. Prosecutors said Donaldson denied those accusations during police interviews, as he did the allegations from the first woman. The report of the opening did not include defence evidence, and the charges remain unproven unless established through the trial process.
Walsh cautioned jurors that neither complainant claimed perfect recall. She said they remembered some elements clearly while retaining only fragments of others, and told the jury that these limitations would need to be considered. Her acknowledgment placed memory and the passage of time among the issues the jury would assess.
Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor, denied five charges, including allegations that she aided and abetted her husband’s alleged offending. Prosecutors said their case was that she knew what was happening. She rejected that claim in police interview.
Eleanor Donaldson was deemed unfit to participate in a conventional criminal trial because of mental-health issues. The jury would instead determine whether she committed the acts alleged against her. Under that procedure, she could not be convicted or imprisoned, even if jurors concluded that she had done them.
The opening presentation was the prosecution’s account, not a judicial finding. Jurors were asked to consider allegations spanning decades, the complainants’ recollections and the defendants’ denials. Both complainants’ interests and those of Jeffrey and Eleanor Donaldson were at stake, Walsh said. The trial’s task was to decide the evidence under criminal-law standards without treating the prominence of a former party leader or the seriousness of the allegations as proof.
