The jury in the sex abuse trial of Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been told that the consequences of what he allegedly did to two women when they were children cannot be "brushed under the carpet any longer" and he should be found guilty.
In her closing speech, prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh KC said the consequences of the former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader's actions, and to a lesser extent his wife Lady Eleanor Donaldson's, were why "we are all here today".
Sir Jeffrey has pleaded not guilty to 18 sex abuse charges, including one count of rape, allegedly committed between 1985 and 2008.
Later, in the defence's closing remarks, Sir Jeffrey's barrister Kieran Vaughan KC urged the jury to ignore the media "noise" surrounding the case, set aside his politics and consider the evidence "without fear or favour".
Earlier, the jury at Newry Crown Court heard the prosecution's closing remarks to the case.
Towards the end of her comments, Walsh said the court was not assembled because the two alleged victims, known as Complainant A and Complainant B, had "fabricated their accounts or because they were conjuring up lies to tell".
She added they were there "because the sexual abuse they suffered has consequences – consequences that cannot be ignored and brushed under the carpet any longer".
Walsh said that when the evidence was "pieced together", it showed that Complainant A and Complainant B were "telling the truth about what happened to them".
"Not because they are promoting a pack of malicious lies for absolutely no good reason. But because this is what happened to them and they made a decision to call it out.
"They put their heads above the parapet and braced for what was coming at them."
In her initial remarks to the jury, Walsh asked the jury to recall the "pain and hurt still so visible" from Complainant A and B.
She described "the long and arduous process" the women had experienced after making their allegations.