The “pain and hurt” of two women who allege Jeffrey Donaldson abused them as children is “still visible”, a prosecution barrister has told Newry Crown Court.Delivering her closing arguments to jurors at the former DUP leader’s sex offences trial, prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh said the alleged victims’ knew their decision to go to police in March 2024 would have “utterly life changing consequences”.“This is no walk in the park. This is not something they are doing for the fun of it or the sake of it,” she said on Tuesday.Jeffrey Donaldson sat in the dock writing throughout the near three-hour period when Walsh spoke to the jury of seven men and five women.Jurors are being asked to consider findings against his wife and co-accused, Eleanor Donaldson, who denies related charges of aiding and abetting.The two women in the case, known as Complainant A and Complainant B, were “conditioned” to abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Donaldson, a “confident and charismatic individual”, Walsh said.Despite suggestions of their memories being “foggy”, both women remember distinctive incidents.“These behaviours were normalised. Bear that in mind when people ask, why did they not scream out?” Walsh said to the jury.As the trial enters its fourth week, the prosecution barrister began her closing submissions by referring to the complainants “locking away” and suppressing their feelings as a “coping mechanism”.Complainant A, the younger of the two women, had faced criticism during cross-examination over why she did to go to police earlier, Walsh said.The prosecution lawyer said the woman had thought “long and carefully” about it. This was a “huge, huge decision”, she said, and one that was “not made lightly”.“She knew it would not just be a normal case because of who Jeffrey Donaldson was,” she added.In relation to Complainant B, who claims she was raped by Donaldson when she was a child, she “blamed herself”.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 arrives at Newry Crown Court in February 2025. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire 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.“Today, you see two women at a time when they are ready for this ... they have not always been that way,” Walsh told the jury on Tuesday.Getting to this point had been a “long and arduous process” for them which culminated in several hours of questioning in court.“Their pain and hurt is still so visible,” she said.The barrister said neither woman has a “full or complete recollection” of the alleged abuse, stating some memories are “fragmentary”.Both claim they recall “distinctive incidents” between the ages of seven or eight until they are 12 or 13.Walsh singled out a meeting Complainant B had with Donaldson while staying at a Christian centre in Armoy in Co Antrim in the 1990s, which had the potential to be “explosive”.Under cross-examination last week, Donaldson said the Christian minister who arranged the meeting was “mistaken” in his evidence to the court that it was set up to discuss a “serious” allegation made against him by Complainant B.Instead, he claimed it was called because the woman, who was 18-years-old at the time, had felt “uncomfortable” about their relationship in the past,On Tuesday, Walsh told the jury that the “biggest fly in the ointment” in relation to this meeting was evidence given during the trial by the couple who set it up, David and Linda Hoy.“The Hoys both have a completely different version of this incident,” she said, adding it was “one that completely stacks up” with the evidence.“This meeting had the potential to be explosive because everyone, including Mr Donaldson, knew it concerned a serious allegation,” she said.“He [Jeffrey Donaldson] took control. No one asked anything. He was there to manage a problem and he did that very well indeed.”Walsh told jurors the meeting was significant for a “number of reasons”, including that Donaldson is “willing to lie and shift his account to desperately try and sidestep the fact that he knew an allegation was made”.The prosecution barrister also rejected suggestions that the two women had got together and “concocted” their allegations.“We say there is no substance to this,” Walsh said.Both had made previous disclosures to other people and it was only in January 2024 that they met.Walsh told the jury they had watched police interviews with both of the alleged victims.“You are the people that have to assess if you are sure that they are telling the truth,” she said.Referring to an incident where Complainant B alleges she was raped by Donaldson as child, Walsh said she recalled the “rustling”, the breathing, “laboured and panting and the hope he would stop and lose interest”.Recounting an alleged incident where B claimed Donaldson lifted her top and played with her breasts, she said: “In the dark, he treats her like the object she is to him.”Referring to an incident of childhood abuse involving Complainant A when she alleged she was woken by a “bright light”, she said the alleged victim was “certain she knew he was looking at her private parts with a light”.Donaldson had been “caught in the act”, adding “he knew he had no explanation”, she told jurors.The barrister referred to letter “of apology” written by Donaldson to Complainant A in 2020 where he referred to “being in a deep pit of sin” and of causing “deep wounds”.It was a matter for the jury to decide whether the letter “refers to the hurt”.Donaldson had claimed in his evidence that the letter was linked to his infidelity.Walsh said it was up to the jury to decide if the handwritten letter related to an affair from 12 years ago that lasted a “number of weeks” or the alleged abuse.Complainant A is “the only one who receives the letter,” jurors were told.Walsh said the reference to the “deep wounds” in the letter is “highly significant”.The prosecution barrister said there is “no reason why these women would lie in this way”.“They made a decision to call it out ... and put their heads above the parapet.”Jeffrey Donaldson “had no regard of the pain and hurt he had caused to each woman”, she said.The sex abuse they suffered “has consequences” and “can’t be brushed under the carpet any more.”The case continues.