How four weeks in court unravelled 'sinful and deceitful' Jeffrey Donaldson

At the end of week three, he entered the witness stand. When being questioned by his barrister, Kieran Vaughan KC, he was defiant in his denials. Of the rape allegation by Complainant B, he said: "It just didn't happen. I am absolutely crystal clear about that. "It is just simply not true." At one point, he choked back tears. There was also discomfort, as he told the court about the affair in 2008. It had been with a divorced woman in London, he told the jury, and it had caused his wife "hurt and pain". He said he would regret it until his dying day, as he regretted other things he had done. But he had not, he insisted, committed the offences he was charged with. At one point he told his barrister: "We are all sinners Mr Vaughan, I am a sinner. "Every day we ask God for forgiveness." When prosecuting barrister Rosemary Walsh KC got to her feet, it was time for Donaldson to face tougher lines of questioning. For much of the first session of his cross-examination, he seemed confident, composed and assured. But, when court returned on Friday for his second day on the stand, Donaldson's composure began to crack. Walsh tried to unravel his defence, at one stage focusing heavily on the meeting with Complainant B in the late 1990s. …