Emma Little-Pengelly has said Jeffrey Donaldson was a “master liar” and said she saw nothing that made her think she was dangerous.
Ms Little-Pengelly, Stormont’s deputy First Minister who was co-opted to replace Donaldson as MLA for Lagan Valley in 2022, said that she never saw behaviour from him that she would have regarded as inappropriate.
She said she felt “deeply betrayed” and “sickened” by Donaldson, and said the first she knew of his behaviour was when he was arrested.
“I have just been so deeply sickened and repulsed by what has come out, I think everybody has, in terms of what Jeffrey Donaldson has done,” she told UTV on Friday.
“As somebody who knew Jeffrey Donaldson, who’d worked with Jeffrey Donaldson for a significant period of time over 20 years, nothing – nothing in the entire time that I knew Jeffrey Donaldson up until his arrest – I didn’t see anything that I could give me any rise for concern in terms of him being a sexual offender, of him being a paedophile.”
She was speaking after questions were raised about what knowledge there was within the DUP and political circles about Donaldson’s behaviour.
She was asked about claims made in the Belfast Telegraph this week that she had told a woman in 2020 that Donaldson was a danger.
“I can’t speak for this woman. I can’t explain what she was thinking whenever she said that, these are not my words,” she said.
“I seen absolutely nothing, witnessed nothing at that time, that gave me any cause of concern.
“I was not told anything about Jeffrey Donaldson that gave me any cause of concern.
“In 2020, I did not believe that Jeffrey Donaldson was a danger to anyone.
“And if I had thought that he was a danger to anyone, not only would I have told people, I would not have been friendly with Jeffrey Donaldson.
“I saw nothing in that man that made me think that he was dangerous to anybody.”
She added: “I have ongoing contact with this woman, and of course, understandably, I have asked her ‘what on earth was she thinking, what was behind the statement?’
“I know that I did not feel that he was a danger at that time in 2020, so it made absolutely no sense to me.
“She can’t give me an explanation for that, whether it’s taken out of context, whether it is some misunderstanding, that is up to her to try to explain that.”
She said while Donaldson’s victims should always be prioritised, she feels “really sick” saying Donaldson’s name and the people who worked with him feel “let down”.
“It just is so shocking to me that you can know somebody for such a sustained period of time, and you can look that person in the face, and that person has been a monster, an appalling person that has carried out appalling things, and that you don’t see that, and people don’t see that, and it has like it’s really shaken me to my core.”
“And then, you add on to that any suggestion whatsoever that, for example, I would have known about any of these activities at that time or ever, it just utterly repulses me.”
Former DUP leader Donaldson was last month convicted at Newry Crown Court of 18 sex offences, including one count of rape, relating to abuse of two women when they were children.
On Friday, the Northern Ireland Assembly began its review into alleged abuse or inappropriate behaviour associated with Donaldson in Stormont.
Earlier this week, the DUP revealed details of an independent review it has commissioned to establish what was known within the party about Donaldson’s conduct.
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