Alison Morris

They've got through the evidence quite quickly, I think quicker than they expected to.

So I would be expecting this maybe to come to a conclusion after the third week.

But I've been court reporting long enough to know that anything can happen and this could extend longer than that.

But right now, I would expect this to end at the three week mark.

It's getting quite a lot of attention in Northern Ireland.

And in the first few days, I think it got quite a bit of national attention.

So there's a very packed jury, a very packed press box, packed every day.

And there's so much so there's an overflow room.

Hmm.

facilitating the amount of media who are interested in this case.

And we did have, which we don't always have in court cases here, we did have the sort of the Channel 4s and Sky News and Channel 5 and people like that showing up for the case, which is unusual, I suppose, when it comes to a criminal case of this type.

This is a Belltel and Crime World podcast.

Newry Crown Court has heard Jeffrey Donaldson sent a message to a minister supporting one of his alleged victims.

In it, he said he wanted to repent before them as he had before God.

And the husband of an alleged victim in the abuse trial has broken down as he gave evidence.

63-year-old former MP Jeffrey Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to all of the 18 charges he's facing.

They include rape and several counts of gross indecency and of indecent assault.

His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublin Hill Road in Dromore, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband's alleged offending.

She's facing a trial of the facts.

Alison Morris is covering the trial for the Belfast Telegraph.