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Nineteen kilometres from Jeffrey Donaldson’s prison cell, down a quiet hedge-lined road, a For Sale sign stands outside a tidy country house.
asserted
sign → publish → house
It was his haven, the place he could retreat from his lies, where he welcomed guests and friends from the church, politics and business under the well-worn cloak of respectability.
uncertain
he → retreat → respectability
The place where his 40-year con could carry on unquestioned.
uncertain
con → carry → ?
The house is now on the market, possibly to help pay legal bills.
uncertain
house → help → bills
But just months after he was charged with child sex abuse crimes including rape, Donaldson had already decided to sell up as soon as the case was over.
asserted
case → charge → rape
He would leave Northern Ireland for good, and he intended to take Eleanor with him.
asserted
he → leave → him
Donaldson's wife Eleanor when charges were brought
The predator politician believed he could con a jury the way he had conned friends, the church, parties and constituencies, and the country.
uncertain
he → bring → friends
So with the help of trusting friends, he created a way out: a fresh start in North Africa, amongst contacts he had made through his political career.
asserted
he → trust → career
One said: ‘I just couldn’t believe he was guilty.
asserted
he → say → ?
I’d trusted him in business and in friendship and during the two years before he went to trial I met him at his house regularly.
asserted
I → trust → house
I believed every word and I helped him, supported him and prayed with him.
asserted
I → believe → him
He convinced me that he would be found not guilty but that life in Northern Ireland would be over for him.
asserted
life → convince → him
He needed to start afresh and he was excited about it.
asserted
he → need → it
I helped him secure a very lucrative job and he was in discussion about the possibility of others in North Africa.
asserted
he → help → Africa
Friends there offered him a hand of friendship and support.
asserted
Friends → offer → friendship
‘The plan was to leave Newry court, enjoy a holiday, get the house ready for market, sell up and head overseas to his new CEO job.
asserted
house → leave → job
I never doubted him for a moment.
asserted
I → doubt → moment
I felt sorry for him.
asserted
I → feel → him
And I, like others, offered him help where I could.
uncertain
I → offer → help
He had a choice of luxury apartments waiting and he was planning a life in the sun when the ordeal was over, far away from the accusations and the doubt they would tarnish him with.
asserted
they → have → him
He never got there.
asserted
He → get → ?
Unknown to Donaldson and his small entourage, his downfall was already under way, and it had begun with a baby: tiny, helpless, with no sense of the world, but nonetheless the power to change it.
asserted
it → begin → it
Her arrival became a reckoning, a moment that set something unseen in motion: a question in her mother’s heart, a devastating realisation that what she had thought was attention, had in fact been abuse, and a box prised open that could never be closed.
uncertain
that → become → fact
What followed in time, and with great courage, was eventually and cautiously a meeting with police.
asserted
followed → follow → police
A maelstrom that would sweep away Donaldson’s knighthood, his party, his reputation and, finally, his freedom.
asserted
that → sweep → knighthood
And all of it followed from the first cry of that little baby.
asserted
all → follow → baby
Her mother had been abused by Jeffrey Donaldson when she was a little girl.
asserted
she → abuse → Donaldson
Decades later she would become known in court as Complainant A, and now, after his conviction, as Victim A.
asserted
she → know → A.
Her personal statement, released to the media on October 15, revealed the horrors she had hidden from for many years.
asserted
she → release → years
She revealed that as she looked at her child, she had felt something rise in her that would not be put back down: a fierce, overwhelming need to keep this little one safe.
asserted
that → reveal → one
She said: ‘I remember thinking how much I wanted to protect her and how I just felt this overwhelming sense that I had to keep her safe.
asserted
I → say → her
And then came the question that would, in the end, bring down Jeffrey Donaldson.
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that → come → Donaldson
‘Why was I not kept safe?’
asserted
I → keep → ?
Once she had asked it, she could not stop asking the questions.
uncertain
she → ask → questions
‘I couldn’t box them away any more.
asserted
I → box → them
I couldn’t ignore them.
asserted
I → ignore → them
This baby gave her mother the strength to do what a knighthood, a seat at Westminster, the Privy Council and the leadership of a political party had kept buried for decades.
asserted
knighthood → give → decades
She gave her the strength to tell the truth.
asserted
She → give → truth
Over decades, Jeffrey Donaldson had preyed on little girls.
asserted
Donaldson → prey → girls
Decades later, it was another little girl who unwittingly set his victims free to put him behind bars.
asserted
who → set → bars
…and 120 more, not listed.
The Aporia
