The Donaldson Sex Abuse Trial: 1. Jury sworn in

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Jeffrey Donaldson sat in court watching a jury being sworn in.

[00:00:04]>> The judge told the jurors he wouldn't insult their intelligence by suggesting they don't recognize the man in the dock.

[00:00:10]>> Everything is in place. This is the Donaldson sex abuse trial.

[00:00:20]Hello and welcome to this special series of the State of Us podcast where day by day we are following the trial of Sir Jeffrey Donaldelsson and his wife Lady Ellaner Donaldson. I'm Tara Mills in our studio in Belfast.

[00:00:32]>> I'm Declan Harvey in Nuri in County.

[00:00:36]This is about an hour south of Belfast for those who aren't too familiar with Northern Ireland. And this is where we have established, if you like, a remote base to help us cover the day's events in court.

[00:00:48]>> So, let's remind ourselves. Jeffrey Donaldelsson is 63 and has pleaded not guilty to all 18 charges he faces. He's accused of rape, four counts of gross indecency, and 13 counts of indecent assault. The offenses allegedly occurred between 1985 and 2008. And there are two alleged victims. His wife, Elellanar Donaldson, faces charges, including aiding and abetting Jeffrey Donaldson's offending. She has also denied those charges and is going through a slightly separate system, which we can talk about in just a moment.

[00:01:22]>> So, let's talk about your day then, Declan. You were in court and it began right on schedule.

[00:01:28]>> Um, yeah, we had been told that Sir Jeffrey Donaldelsson would arrive outside Crown Court at 9:15 a.m. And he did, bang on time. He pulled up in a black car with a driver. He stepped out.

[00:01:40]He was alone. Um but he was met on the curb by his solicitor who had arrived um a short time before him. Jeffrey Donaldson was wearing a blue suit, a light teal tie. He was carrying a tan briefcase. Um it struck me that he has shaved the beard that he was sporting on a couple of previous occasions. Um so he looks more like the Jeffrey Donaldson that people are familiar with. And also for those who are familiar with him, they'll know that for decades he never appeared in public without wearing a a small pin on his lapel, a Christian fish symbol. And it was noted um on previous appearances that he wasn't wearing it, but he was wearing that um pin again today, as he has done, as I say, in public for most of his career. Uh but once he got out of the car, uh he moved through the crowd and uh into the building. And I got to tell you, Tara, there was pretty much absolute silence.

[00:02:37]Um no one said a thing. You could just hear the click of the cameras.

[00:02:40]>> And were there many people outside, Declan?

[00:02:43]>> Well, look, a police had put up barriers. Um they were clearly expecting maybe bigger crowds than arrived. There might have been about 20 photographers and then maybe a dozen or so more journalists and reporters outside. And once Jeffrey Donaldson had passed us, then the journalist started to go into the court building as well. But we were all led to a separate courtroom, not the main courtroom where this trial is going to play out. We were led into a different room so that jury selection could happen in the main courtroom, but we could see and watch it all um on big screens. Um, and it was interesting to me just as the screen in our courtroom popped into life uh and the mics were turned on, we could just hear the court clerk officially asking uh Jeffrey Donaldson um if he was ready for his trial and his answer was yes.

[00:03:31]>> And where was he sitting at this point?

[00:03:33]It's maybe a good idea just to give us a kind of visual of what that court is like in Yuri.

[00:03:39]>> Yeah. Okay. Well, and obviously you have the judge, uh, Judge Paul Ramsey at the top of the court. And as he looks out across the room, you have the jury to his left. Um, and then the press bench in the public gallery is to his right.

[00:03:54]In the well of the court, you have all the lawyers, the barristers are there.

[00:03:58]But then at the back, so directly facing the judge is Jeffrey Donaldelsson. Um, now he had his arms folded at one point.

[00:04:06]Later on um in proceedings he started to take notes. There were two uniformed custody officers on either side of him and there was also an empty chair which um I'm if I'm well I'm not sure if it was by design or not. Uh but it certainly looked symbolic of Ellanar Donaldson um who was absent today. She wasn't expected to be here today.

[00:04:28]>> Yes. And she's not expected to be in court at all for this trial because of her poor mental health. We now know that she will go through a separate but simultaneous process called the trial of the facts and we explained that in our last episode so people can go back and listen. So Declan, then the jury selection process began and there was perhaps an expectation that that would take a while.

[00:04:51]>> Yeah. So, while we were gathering in our kind of side courtroom, next door there were, I would say maybe, well, at least 200 or so, um, members of the public who'd been called in for jury duty.

[00:05:03]That's referred to as the jury pool. And then at random, some of them were pulled out and they were the first wave, brought into the main courtroom. The judge gave them what you might expect to be a usual welcome and said who was on trial and he explained how there had been unchallenged medical evidence written and oral in respect of Elner Donaldson's mental health. He said I made a ruling that Elner Donaldson is unfit to stand trial but she is represented and you the jury will have to determine a trial of the facts which we will explain to you uh down the line.

[00:05:35]He said but then he said I don't want to insult your intelligence by asking if you know Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. He said he is a high-profile prominent public uh figure, but he said he is still entitled to a fair trial. And the judge said it's important that we can swear in a jury with an open mind so that the defendant will be treated with fairness and impartiality. And then he went on to give a short biography of the Donaldson couple. And in the broadest terms, he set out the case and some of the details of the two alleged victims. And this is where we will remind our listeners again that these two individuals, complainants they're called, they have lifetime anonymity. So it is illegal for us to identify them. And that applies uh to anyone on social media as well. Um not just journalists.

[00:06:24]>> Let's find out a little bit more about how a jury is selected and solicitor Sarah McHune is back to help us with some of the procedural stuff. So, you're trying to find a jury that is coming into the case to deal with the case to try the case on the evidence they hear.

[00:06:43]When they are sworn and when the judge is given his opening direction to them, they will be told it's not a trial on emotion. Disregard what you've heard in the press. Disregard what's been discussed since this initially broke.

[00:06:55]You only try it on what you hear in the courtroom. But you're relying on 12 human beings to do that. So that is not easy because if you have a case that is high-profile, I would imagine you'd find it difficult to find a jury pool that have not heard about the case that have not >> But but there is no suggestion though that you would have to find 12 people who have never heard of >> No, because it's impossible. Yeah, >> you will probably in a high-profile case they would I I would imagine they would consider a bigger jury pool. So as there are more people they may even consider a questionnaire which is where they would question the people potentially in the jury pool before they come in about what their views on certain things would be what their affiliations on certain things would be would probably touch on have they made any determinations do they feel that they could hear this but they have to find a jury and you're not going to find people that haven't heard about certain high-profile cases. You just have to try and reduce the risk as much as possible to find 12 persons that are going to try it on the evidence that they hear and only on the evidence they hear in the courtroom, not what they hear in social media, not what's discussed outside, not on emotion. Not an easy task.

[00:08:08]>> And just on the numbers then, how many are chosen? Is there um the ability for the prosecution or the defense to object to a particular juror? How does that work?

[00:08:17]>> So, a jury is 12 people. They will normally in panel 12 and then a few reserves in case something happens and they they may need to call on a reserve.

[00:08:27]We can only challenge now with cause which means if you are swearing a jury and people are being sworn in, you need a reason to challenge. You can't just challenge somebody because you have a gut feeling about that person. There has to be a reason. There has to be a cause.

[00:08:42]And that's applies to both prosecution and defense.

[00:08:44]>> And what could those causes be? Give us a couple of examples. Well, if say somebody in the jury that was being sworn was known to you, there would be a clear conflict in that they couldn't be on the jury. Or if there was somebody that happened to be sworn in a high-profile case where it was very obviously that that person was known to them or that they were have they would have certain affiliations either for that person or against that person. That would be cause, but you can't you need to have a reason. Now, >> our thanks to Sarah Mun for that. So, how long did it take to get the jury selected? Um, because we do now have a jury, Declan. That's correct.

[00:09:21]>> Yeah, absolutely. And we did think it could take a while. Uh, in the end, it was done in under an hour. Tara, um, the jury was told to, well, those potential jurors who were called in first were told to alert the judge if they felt that they had any connection to the case or any of the potential witnesses or potential locations that might get mentioned or anything like that. Um they were also told that this trial would last three to four weeks and if they'd anything significant planned uh like medical appointments or routine medical appointments that might come up a few times or if they had holidays etc. Um and I think maybe a dozen or so um potential jurors were excluded or excused through that process but fairly quickly we had our jury uh we haven't seen them yet because we haven't been in the same courtroom as them. Uh but we will uh see them tomorrow. Um they were then given a questionnaire to fill out.

[00:10:12]Now we haven't been shown the full questionnaire, but we do know uh because it was said out loud in court that they were asked questions like, "Have you directly or indirectly um ever been exposed to online chats or adverse commentary about this case? Have you researched this case in any great detail?" Um and I think we lost maybe a couple of jurors in that process as well, but it didn't last long. And then the juror were sent home for the day. Um the judge told them to be back in the morning. Um and that is when the prosecution will begin to set out the case.

[00:10:47]>> But the jury has been sworn in. Is that right?

[00:10:50]>> Yeah, absolutely. Um and it's just struck me it's interesting because we are seeing two processes side by side here. There is and this may be one for the legal geeks if you like, but there are two separate oaths clearly. one for this criminal crown court trial of Jeffrey Donaldson, but also there's a separate oath with slightly different wording for the uh trial of the facts that Elner Donaldson is going to face.

[00:11:13]Um, but as I said, the jury was sent home uh before lunch. Um, and they were told by the judge, he said, "I've no doubt when you get home, you are going to be asked about this, but do not under any circumstances discuss this with anyone." He said, "I'm not banning you from social media. I'd prefer if you didn't get go on social media, but sometimes families communicate that way.

[00:11:35]He understands that. But he says, I don't want anything to distract you uh from the job that they have to do in this trial.

[00:11:43]And he said, you know, more generally, that no one should engage in any activity that could prejudice this trial uh going forward. And he repeated, I think for the journalists listening and anyone else potentially as well, that the attorney general and the police have already in the run-up to today sent out warnings of the consequences, and this goes for the public, I think, too, um, of saying anything uh, that could cause substantial risk to the the fairness of this process.

[00:12:11]>> Declan, thanks for all of that. Um, you can bring us up to date tomorrow. You're back in court for the beginning of the prosecution case. And if you hit subscribe, you can get all of the episodes delivered right to you as we finish the court hearings each day for the next three or four weeks.

[00:12:27]>> For now though, thanks for listening.

[00:12:29]Bye-bye.