Northern Ireland's former unionist leader tells jury he did not sexually abuse two children

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LONDON (AP) — The former leader of Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party told a jury Thursday that he was “crystal clear” that he did not rape an alleged victim when she was a child decades ago, as he gave evidence at his trial on sex crime charges.

At the opening of his trial at Newry Crown Court two weeks ago, Jeffrey Donaldson, 63, pleaded not guilty to one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 indecent assault charges involving two alleged victims from 1985 to 2008.

Both the alleged victims have given evidence at the trial that they were abused as children. The two told police that Donaldson groped them when they were around primary school age, and the older of the two, referred to in court as Complainant B, said she had been raped.

Donaldson denied any wrongdoing in testimony Thursday. About the rape allegation specifically, Donaldson said: “It just didn’t happen, I am absolutely crystal clear about that."

“It is not something I would ever have done, it is just simply not true," he said.

Donaldson was the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, or DUP, a conservative party dedicated to maintaining the region’s historic ties to the United Kingdom, when he was arrested in 2024.

He was emotional at times during his testimony, and spoke of how his head was “in a spin” after his arrest. At the time he resigned as leader of the DUP and quit as a lawmaker in the U.K. Parliament.

Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 60, has denied several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending. She faces a fact-finding hearing on those charges but will not face a criminal trial on mental health grounds.

Donaldson denied any suggestion that his wife had witnessed the abuse but did not intervene.

“She would have been very angry, she would have intervened immediately," he said. “I am absolutely clear, there is no situation where that happened.”

As leader of the DUP from 2021 to 2023, Donaldson was the most powerful figure in Northern Ireland’s unionist movement.

The trial is expected to last another couple of weeks.

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