They sat in the front row of the public gallery, side by side, two women who had been abused by former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson when they had been little girls.
asserted
they → sit → Donaldson
It was Friday the 13th, the final hurdle of the trial that saw him jailed, and now they awaited the sentencing of his co-accused, his wife Eleanor Donaldson.
asserted
they → see → accused
The women had started their journeys to justice alone but in Newry Crown Court they held hands at the start of the hearing, linked forever by the horrors they had each suffered, by the trauma of the case and now the prospect of a new life with sentences secured.
asserted
sentences → start → life
With the police positioned behind them, Victim A and her husband sat either side of Victim B and as the court proceedings moved to formal sentencing, the screen behind Judge Paul Ramsey flickered into life, prompting them all to turn to face it.
asserted
screen → position → it
Instead, her pallid face appeared in courtroom 1 via video link.
asserted
face → appear → link
Wearing a black polo neck top, her hair was severely cropped, cut at an angle across the fringe, revealing two deep cuts on her forehead, each an inch long, partially healed and fully visible.
asserted
each → wear → forehead
She appeared slumped slightly to the right, leaning against the shoulder of her solicitor, her eyes closed, her facial expressions giving away rolling emotions.
asserted
expressions → appear → emotions
Eleanor Donaldson on the last day she attended Newry Crown Court in February 2025.
asserted
she → attend → February
It was the first time she had been seen at court since February 21, 2025, when she appeared with the same solicitor at her side, walking briskly into the building, smiling slightly at the media cameras.
asserted
she → see → cameras
After that her health reportedly failed and after several medical reports, Judge Paul Ramsey ruled that she would face a trial of the facts, excusing her from appearing alongside her husband in the dock.
uncertain
she → fail → dock
She was not seen again in or near the court for almost 21 months and the change in her appearance was marked.
asserted
change → see → appearance
Last month, Judge Paul Ramsey had insisted that she make an appearance on Friday, either in person or on screen to hear him sentence her.
asserted
him → insist → her
Almost five months on from the jury finding her husband guilty of all 18 charges and finding that she acted in the five counts she faced, it could have been feasible to forget exactly what the jury had found she did.
Chief prosecutor Rosemary Walsh KC took the court back through the five counts, briefly and precisely, the way she had taken the jury through four weeks of evidence in the summer.
Counts one, two and three concerned Victim B, who had been raped and twice indecently assaulted.
uncertain
who → find → B
The prosecution case, and the jury’s finding, was that that day, Eleanor had directed or guided the child into a position where her husband would have access to her to abuse her.
asserted
husband → direct → her
Eleanor knew, Ms Walsh said, what was going to happen.
asserted
what → know → ?
Photo: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Count four was centred around Eleanor’s actions – or lack of action – after witnessing her husband abusing a child.
asserted
husband → centre → child
She saw what was happening but stepped away, pulling the door to.
asserted
what → see → door
The closing of the door, the jury found, let the abuse carry on.
asserted
abuse → find → door
Count 19 rested on two moments when a child approached Eleanor for help and support.
asserted
child → rest → help
The first time, she told her Jeffrey had kissed her in a manner the prosecution described as deeply inappropriate and sexual.
asserted
prosecution → tell → manner
Eleanor laughed, as if it were a joke.
asserted
it → laugh → ?
The second time, the same little girl told Eleanor she had woken to see Jeffrey standing over her with a torch trained on her intimate parts.
asserted
Jeffrey → tell → parts
Eleanor did nothing to help her.
asserted
Eleanor → do → her
That, the jury found, exposed the child to additional risk of sexual harm, and she failed to stop it.
asserted
she → find → it
In June, Judge Ramsey had directed the jury that it must be sure Eleanor had ‘aided and abetted or assisted or encouraged the commissioning of offences by a positive act, whether by words or deeds’.
asserted
Eleanor → direct → words
Ms Walsh told the court that pain ‘permeated’ the victim impact statements of both women.
asserted
pain → tell → women
Then she turned the court’s attention to what they had said about Eleanor.
asserted
they → turn → Eleanor
Victim B described the harm she had carried as a child and into her adult life.
asserted
she → describe → life
Then she addressed Eleanor directly, with the question she had waited decades to ask: ‘What did I do wrong that you didn’t make it stop?’
asserted
it → address → What
Victim A said becoming a mother herself had forced her to look again at her own childhood, and at the adults around her.
asserted
becoming → say → her
Holding her own children, she could not fathom how anyone could fail to protect a child.
uncertain
anyone → hold → child
Photo: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Two people who should have kept her safe had failed her, she said, and no amount of healing will ever change that.
asserted
amount → keep → that
She still cannot understand why loyalty to Jeffrey was put before her, and before Victim B.
asserted
loyalty → understand → her
Neither little girl, it seemed, had been valued enough to protect.
asserted
it → seem → ?
The court could not answer those questions.
uncertain
court → answer → questions
The judge was bound by the narrow options the law allowed.
asserted
law → bind → options
But they hung in Courtroom 1 long after Ms Walsh sat down, and they were still hanging there when Eleanor appeared on screen, eyes closed, head bowed.
asserted
head → hang → screen
Yesterday the court heard oral evidence from Dr Christine Kennedy, a forensic psychiatrist, and Professor George Fox, who had each assessed Eleanor.
asserted
who → hear → Eleanor
They stated that she should be subject to a Supervision and Treatment Order (STO).
asserted
she → state → Order
Judge Ramsey also had reports from a social worker and from probation.
asserted
Ramsey → have → probation
…and 63 more, not listed.
The Aporia
