See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy GLEN KEOGH, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 16:52 BST, 2 June 2026 | Updated: 16:52 BST, 2 June 2026
A woman who says she was raped as a child by former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson described hearing his ‘heavy breathing’ during one alleged assault.A jury in the trial of the politician at Newry Crown Court, Northern Ireland, heard a police video interview with the complainant in which she outlined two alleged sex attacks when she was of primary school and then secondary school age.During the interview, recorded in March 2024, the woman, known as Complainant B, said the ex-MP, 63, had put his hands down her underwear, pulled her legs apart and then sexually assaulted her.She said: ‘I remember I couldn’t tell anybody, I remember telling my imaginary friend.’Asked by police for the name of her alleged abuser, she said: ‘Jeffrey Donaldson MP.’She added: ‘I just remember hearing his heavy breathing.’She then recounted a second alleged assault, said to have taken place when she was of secondary school age, which she said was witnessed by Donaldson’s wife, Lady Eleanor, who then walked away.Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to 18 sex abuse charges, including one count of rape. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson leaving Newry Crown Court on Tuesday after the jury in his sexual assault trial were played Complainant B's video interview with police Donaldson, pictured with his solicitor John McBurney has denied 18 historical sex offencesThe charges span a time period between 1985 and 2008 involving two alleged victims.Eleanor Donaldson denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending.She is facing a trial of the facts after a judge ruled she was medically unfit to stand trial.During her police video interview, Complainant B frequently became emotional as she recalled how growing up she was ‘sexually abused by an adult’ and Donaldson’s hands were allegedly ‘down my pants a lot.’The complainant also told police that she was referred to a Christian centre as a teenager which then arranged a meeting between her and Donaldson after she disclosed the alleged abuse to a worker.She said: ‘He [Donaldson] apologised for what he had done to me in the past.’Donaldson, the former long-standing MP for Lagan Valley, was arrested and charged at the end of March 2024.He resigned as DUP leader and was suspended from the party after the allegations emerged.The trial continues.
