At a pre-sentence hearing at Newry Crown Court in September, the two victims of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson faced him across a courtroom for the first time.

As extracts from their victim impact statements were read aloud by prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh KC, they sat in the public gallery with the police team which had helped to secure Donaldson’s conviction.

Both women had given evidence during the former DUP leader’s month-long trial earlier in the year, but were in a different room as they told the jury how they had both been abused repeatedly.

The two women, known as Complainants A and B to protect their identities, made use of special court measures so that they did not have to give evidence in front of the former politician.

Their testimonies led to Donaldson being found guilty of a string of historical sex offences.

Ten of those related to Complainant B, the older of the two women, including one count of rape and nine of indecent assault, dating from 1985 to 1991.

He was convicted of four charges of indecent assault and four of gross indecency relating to Complainant A, dating from 1999 to 2008.

During his trial, Ms Walsh told the jury the ex-MP had subjected the two women to “difficult and traumatic incidents” when they were children.

Complainant A was the first witness called in the trial. She said that she had first been abused when of primary school age.

She told the jury of one incident where she said Donaldson had used a light, possibly a torch, to look at her “private parts”.

Complainant A told the court that another incident where she claimed the former politician had put his tongue in her mouth had been “laughed off” by both Donaldson and his wife Eleanor.

She also said he had touched her breasts “skin on skin” when she was a child.

The trial heard about a letter which Donaldson had written to A in June 2020.

In the letter he expressed “regret” for “all the hurt, pain and distress I have caused”.

Complainant A told the trial she had thought the letter was an attempt “to apologise for perhaps the abuse which had occurred”.

Under cross-examination, A was asked why she had waited until 2024 to make her reports about the abuse to police.

She said: “I knew this would be an extremely public affair, involving media. It was a huge, huge decision.”

Complainant B was the next to give evidence in the trial. She told the jury that she remembered two incidents “vividly”.

In one, she said that Jeffrey Donaldson had put his hands down her underwear, pulled her legs apart with his feet and then raped her when she was of primary school age.

In the second incident she said that he had lifted her top and started to touch her breasts when she was of secondary school age.

Referring to the rape, she stated: “The actions that night I will never forget, what happened that night will live with me forever.”

The jury also heard from the husband of Complainant A who became emotional as he told the court about the moment his wife informed him about the abuse.

He said: “She was scared, she had never told anyone this, I recognised this was massive for her.”

The trial also heard evidence from a Presbyterian minister and his wife who had provided “pastoral support” to Complainant A and her husband after they had disclosed the abuse.

The minister told the jury that Jeffrey Donaldson had sent him a message in 2023 asking for a meeting.

The man responded, telling the former MP that it would be “inappropriate” to have the meeting.

The court heard that Donaldson then sent a reply which said: “I just want to find a way to say how sorry I am and repent before them as I have before the Lord.”

The jury in the sexual offences trial also heard evidence about a meeting between Complainant B and Jeffrey Donaldson at the Christian Family Centre in Armoy in the 1990s.

B had stayed at the centre after developing issues with drugs when she was a teenager.

Claire Selfridge, the daughter of David and Linda Hoy, who founded the centre, gave evidence on a video link from South Africa.

She told the jury that B told her “she had been abused” in her bedroom.

She said: “Very shocking, almost like a bomb went off, that is what it felt like for me.”

The jury was played a video of a police interview with Pastor Stephen Matthews, who said B had told him in Armoy about abuse, but asked him not to go to police.

He said: “She said she can’t because it would destroy their political reputation, I don’t want that.”

Mr Matthews said he could not remember if B had named her abuser but said it “became obvious” who it was.

Asked by a police officer who he believed that to be, Mr Matthews said: “There was only one person, that was Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.”

David and Linda Hoy appeared as witnesses during the trial earlier this year.

Mr Hoy said he had received a phone call from Mr Matthews stating there “had been an allegation”.

He added: “He said it was against Jeffrey Donaldson.”

Mr Hoy arranged the meeting between Donaldson and Complainant B, which was also attended by himself and his wife.

Mr Hoy told the jury: “Mr Donaldson spoke first, he said I know what this is about, he said I am sorry and can you please forgive me.”

Mr Hoy said he asked B if she wanted to “take this any further and she said no”.

Jeffrey Donaldson spent two days in the witness box giving evidence, where he repeatedly denied that he had abused the women.

In her closing speech, Ms Walsh said there was “no reason” why the two women would lie about being abused.

She added: “What the evidence shows when it is pieced together is that they are telling the truth about what happened to them.”

The jury accepted the account of the two victims and rejected Donaldson’s denials and unanimously found him guilty on all 18 of the charges he faced.

Judge Paul Ramsey ordered that he be sent to Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim, where the former MP has been since June awaiting sentencing.

He appeared in the dock at Newry Crown Court again last month for his pre-sentence hearing, when his two victims were in the courtroom.

During that hearing, Ms Walsh referred to victim impact statements from both women.

She said the abuse B had suffered had affected “every day of every relationship she has had since then”.

The barrister said the woman wished on a daily basis she could die and had guilt about not reporting the offences to police earlier.

She said A feels her “childhood was stolen from her”.

Ms Walsh said the physical impact of the abuse she suffered “affects her sleep and sense of wellbeing on a daily basis” and that she suffers stress and anxiety.

Donaldson’s barrister Kieran Vaughan KC said he acknowledged “given the nature of the offences that the court will impose a lengthy custodial sentence”.

He said he had “complete confidence” the court would treat Donaldson the same as any other defendant.

He said the former politician was a man of “previous good character” and there had been no offending in the past 18 years.

The barrister said that Donaldson “did achieve significant things in his life”.

But he added: “These convictions obliterate all those achievements he has made in his life.”

Donaldson’s solicitor John McBurney has previously confirmed that papers have been lodged for an appeal.