Eleanor Donaldson told police she was “horrified” by the claim she facilitated the alleged rape of a child by her husband Jeffrey Donaldson, Newry Crown Court has heard. In police interviews played to the jury on Tuesday, Eleanor Donaldson said “that’s not true” and “there is absolutely no way that I would have”. She said she was never made aware of, and did not witness, any inappropriate behaviour between her husband and Complainant B, who is one of two women who allege Jeffrey Donaldson abused them as children. Asked by police if “at any time have you allowed a situation to happen where Jeffrey Donaldson has been sexually abusing” Complainant A, Eleanor Donaldson replied “absolutely not”.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, which replaces a criminal trial in such circumstances. On Tuesday, audio recordings of police interviews with both Jeffrey and Eleanor Donaldson in March 2024 were played the jury. Questioned about a letter of “apology” to the woman known as Complainant A following his arrest, Jeffrey Donaldson told police it had nothing to do with “any allegation or any action involving sexual abuse”, he told police. “The remorse was about other things,” he said. “I can’t accept the view that this was some clever ruse on my part to cover something and make it go away. Why would I try to make something go away that wasn’t there?” In her evidence earlier in the trial, Complainant A, the younger of the two alleged victims, said she had received a letter from Jeffrey Donaldson in which he described himself as a “sinner” and said he regretted “all the hurt, pain and distress I have caused”.She said it “felt like an apology ... he was trying to apologise for perhaps the abuse that had occurred, but he didn’t want to say that formally in writing”.The defence barrister suggested to the complainant that the letter “had nothing to do with you” and was instead linked to an extramarital affair. In the police interview played on Tuesday, Jeffrey Donaldson said the “context” of the letter was communication “with this woman who had contacted me as a constituent ... nothing inappropriate happened between me and the constituent but there were messages”.He added: “None of that is to do with any allegation or any action involving sexual abuse. It relates to a singular incident ... nowhere in that letter did I indicate nor was I alluding to incidents of sexual abuse.”In the interview, Jeffrey Donaldson repeatedly rejected the claims made by both Complainant A and Complainant B. Asked by police if he was saying they were “lying”, he replied: “I’m saying that the specific allegations that have been put to me are untrue.”He also denied he had “nodded” his head to indicate to Complainant A that he had sexually abused her, saying “I did not sexually abuse” her. “Did I admit to something I didn’t do? No,” he said. On Tuesday, the jury also heard four audio recordings of police interviews with Eleanor Donaldson in March 2024 in which she described her marriage to Jeffrey Donaldson as “difficult at times”. She said he had been “very focused and driven” in his career and there had been “infidelity”.During the Covid-19 pandemic, “I just felt something wasn’t right ... he was very attached to his phone and I just thought, oh no here we go again, something is not right here ... I really feel I need to get to the bottom of this.” Her counsellor suggested a listening device could be installed to gather evidence, and “a little thing” was “planted ... in the car”.Jeffrey Donaldson was “confronted” and “initially denied it and gave all sorts of excuses” and was then told about the recordings of “flirtatious conversations ... it was enough to know something was going on”.“At that point there was nowhere to run or hide, with that he put his hands up.” As a result, he moved out of the house for a time. In another of the police interviews, Eleanor Donaldson was asked about a reference in Jeffrey Donaldson’s alleged letter of “apology” to him seeking help, and said the conversations they had related to “his infidelity with me and why he kept repeatedly doing that.“He’s always said to me, it’s just I’ve been put in positions and I just couldn’t refuse. “It’s no defence, I have been at events with him where I have witness [sic] people actually throwing themselves [at him] for whatever reason ... I’m guessing it’s a power thing.“I know from the infidelity and from these situations that ... people have put themselves to him and he’s just gone yeah, why not.”Eleanor Donaldson was questioned by police about an alleged incident in which Complainant B claimed she had walked in on Jeffrey Donaldson while he was touching her breasts. Eleanor Donaldson said she “opened the door ... I could just see Jeffrey in this room with [Complainant B] standing in front of him. I just sort of remember ... saying ‘what are you doing?’.”Later, “I just said, ‘what was that?’,” she added. “‘Oh,’ he says, ‘it was nothing, I was just talking’.” She had a clear view of them both and they were fully clothed, she told police. In a later interview, she said “I don’t know anything about clothing”, as she could “only see his back ... and I couldn’t see what [was] in behind, I could just see her head.”In the years that followed, Eleanor Donaldson said, she “never had any cause for concern ever ... apart from thinking that was strange and that what was that about, and I asked Jeffrey about it and he just dismissed it.”She said she asked him about it “many times and it never came to anything and he never gave me any answers”.Asked by the police why she kept asking him, and if it was because she thought there was something more there, she replied “because I was uncomfortable”. “I just thought why ... every time I did ask I was met with a blank wall, it was not coming out. Whatever it was, it was not coming out.” In a later police interview, she said: “I’m a mother and ... it just never sat well with me that I walked in and saw what, well, I didn’t see, I don’t know. “I didn’t feel it was right ... I just didn’t feel that was a normal thing.”They also spoke about an alleged apology he had made to Complainant B at a Christian centre in Armoy: “He said to me ... that has been dealt with, I had a conversation with [Complainant B], I have asked for her forgiveness, but I never knew what for.“I never knew what was the cause ... he wouldn’t talk to me about it.” The trial continues.