“Mr Donaldson, I want to just pick up where we left off yesterday.”
Rosemary Walsh KC did not hesitate in getting straight back into her cross-examination of Jeffrey Donaldson as his trial resumed on Friday morning.
Taking up his seat in the witness box just after 10am, he would go on to be questioned on the allegations made against him for around four hours in total.
The former DUP leader, today dressed in a navy suit and turquoise tie, has pleaded not guilty to all 18 historical sexual abuse charges.
His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, who has not been present in court after being ruled unfit to stand trial, is instead facing a ‘trial of the facts’ relating to aiding and abetting charges, which she denies.
She cannot be found guilty.
As the cross-examination resumed inside Newry Crown Court’s courtroom one on day 14 of the trial, Ms Walsh continued with her focus on the allegations of complainant B.
Much of the morning’s exchanges focused on the alleged apology meeting involving complainant B at the Co Antrim Christian centre where she was sent to in her late teens.
While all parties who attended the meeting – Jeffrey Donaldson, complainant B and the centre’s founders David and Linda Hoy – agree that it took place, they disagree on what was said.
Jeffrey Donaldson told the court that he had said he was sorry if the complainant had felt “uncomfortable” and that at no point were allegations put to him about any sexual abuse.
The court previously heard the Hoys say that he had entered the meeting saying he knew what it was about and asked the woman for forgiveness, which he denies.
Referring to Linda Hoy’s evidence, Ms Walsh asked Mr Donaldson why complainant B had been in tears at the meeting.
“I don’t recall that, I have to say,” he said.
He added that the meeting had been “positive”, and when asked if the Hoys were “misremembering” complainant B being upset, he responded: “I can only tell you what I remember.”
As their exchanges continued, Ms Walsh suggested that Jeffrey Donaldson “took control” of the meeting from the outset in order to stop any details of the allegations coming out.
The 63-year-old denied this and said that it misrepresented what happened.
“I cannot agree at all with how you are characterising that meeting,” he responded.
He reaffirmed that the allegations made against him by complainant B are “untrue”.
As the cross-examination relating to her allegations drew to a close, Ms Walsh suggested that the “reason she has come forward” is “precisely because they are true”.
The pair continued to disagree as they proceeded to the alleged sexual abuse involving complainant A, all of which he also denies.
When the allegation of inappropriate touching was put to him, he responded: “Absolutely not. No, no, no.”
As they moved to the incident in which complainant A claims Jeffrey Donaldson had shone a light on her private parts, Ms Walsh suggested that he had been “caught in the act”.
“No, absolutely not,” he responded.
Throughout the afternoon, the pair continued to be at odds as they progressed through issues relating to the woman.
This included a letter that he wrote to her in June 2020.
Ms Walsh read through excerpts of the letter, in which he expressed in which he expressed “regret” for the “hurt, pain and distress” he had caused.
She suggested that part of it had referred to the alleged sexual abuse.
He denied this.
“I was not writing to seek forgiveness for sexual abuse,” he said.
Drawing her cross-examination to a close just before 4pm, Ms Walsh put it to Jeffrey Donaldson that the “only person” telling lies, “sinful and deceitful lies,” she added, was him.
“No. Not true,” he responded.
As Donaldson’s time in the witness box came to an end after two days, the judge informed the jury that the court was “reaching the concluding stages” of evidence in the case.
The trial will enter its fourth week when proceedings resume on Monday.
