Jeffrey Donaldson’s letter to alleged victim had ‘nothing to do’ with abuse claims, trial hears

Jeffrey Donaldson told a woman who has accused him of sexual assault that he regretted inflicting “hurt, pain and distress”, but his comments were not related to the allegations, a court has heard.A lawyer for the former MP and Democratic Unionist Party leader told Newry crown court on Friday that Donaldson’s letter to the alleged victim had “nothing to do” with her accusations of sexual abuse and referred to other behaviour.On the fourth day of the trial, Kieran Vaughan KC put it to the complainant, known as Witness A, that she was mistaken in linking the letter to his alleged historical sex offences.She said the letter, written in 2020, did not mention sexual abuse but had connotations of guilt and shame and requested forgiveness. “I believe that letter is a letter of apology for what he did to me over the years. He is a very clever man, he would never write in writing what he had done but he could heavily suggest.”Donaldson, 63, faces 18 charges, including one count of rape, which span from 1985 to 2008 and involve two alleged victims. His wife, Eleanor, 60, is charged with aiding and abetting rape and indecent assault. Both deny all the charges.The trial previously heard that Donaldson described himself in the letter as a “sinner” who had not addressed his “sinful nature for far too many years” and would “regret this to my dying day”.Vaughan mentioned Witness A’s allegation that Donaldson touched her breasts on several occasions when she was of primary school age and that it was mostly “skin on skin”, and contrasted it with her comment to police about “touching over clothing”.“On the face of it that is inconsistent with what you told the jury yesterday, about touching under clothes,” said Vaughan. Witness A replied: “The facts are the facts, I am sticking to that.”Vaughan challenged her account, made in a police interview, that Donaldson had “perched” over her and used a light to look at her “private parts”. “I suggest that is not true,” he said. “You were confused and you were not sure of what you had seen.”Witness A replied: “To this day I am still confused. I am honest about that.”Vaughan asked why she had waited until March 2024 to make a formal complaint about alleged sexual abuse. “I knew this would be an extremely public affair, involving media. It was a huge, huge decision,” she said. “I had doubt about doing this, I very nearly changed my mind.”The jury of five women and seven men also heard that in 2020 Eleanor Donaldson suspected her husband was having an affair with a constituent and had a listening device planted in his car.Donaldson sat in the dock and took notes during the hearing.Eleanor Donaldson, who has been judged unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds, was not present. She is facing a trial of the facts, which tests the evidence but cannot result in a criminal conviction. Her legal team will question Witness A next week.