Jeffrey Donaldson found guilty of child sexual offences including rape | Northern Ireland
Jeffrey Donaldson was found guilty of sexual offenses against two victims who were children at the time of the abuse.
The former Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader faces a potential prison sentence after a jury at Newry crown court on Monday convicted him of 18 offenses including rape, indecent assault and gross indecency.
The decision completed a stunning downfall for an establishment figure who dominated unionism and played a key role at Westminster in post-Brexit negotiations over Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom.
The jury found that Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor, aided and abetted her husband’s crime. He faced a facts hearing that tested the evidence but did not result in a criminal conviction, as Judge Paul Ramsey deemed the 60-year-old unfit to stand trial due to his mental health.
During a four-week trial, Donaldson, 63, pleaded not guilty to a count of rape and other charges of gross indecency and indecent assault spanning a period from 1985 to 2008.
Prosecutors had urged the jury of five women and seven men to remember that “the pain and suffering was still visible” in the two victims, referred to as complainants A and B. “There are consequences to the sexual abuse they have suffered, consequences that can no longer be ignored or swept under the rug,” Rosemary Walsh KC said.
Complainant B told the hearing that he still had the memory of the attack on Donaldson: “What happened that night will live with me forever.”
The decision will destroy what is left of the reputation of the former Lagan Valley MP, a flamboyant media performer and major political figure who helped broker the Windsor framework in Northern Ireland.
His arrest in March 2024 shocked Westminster and Stormont. Donaldson stood down as MP and resigned from the DUP; The DUP has deleted his name and image from its website and appointed Gavin Robinson as the party’s new leader.
A throng of cameras greeted Donaldson each day as he arrived at the field in Newry, 40 miles (65 km) south of Belfast. In the presence of court staff, the defendant appeared calm and took notes during the hearings and declared his innocence on the witness stand for two days.
Complainant B said that she was raped when she was primary school age, and that she was secondary school age when Donaldson lifted her top and caressed her breasts. The jury heard Donaldson’s wife witnessed part of the second incident and walked away.
Complainant A said she was primary school age when Donaldson started getting “physical” with her and put his hands on her. She recalled waking up many times at night with sexual feelings and having nightmares about “men doing terrible things to children.”
The court heard he once kissed her and stuck his tongue in her mouth and later laughed as a joke when she complained. Donaldson also said he used a light to look at his genitals.
The trial heard the victim told a priest about the abuse in the 1990s, before Donaldson met her at a Christian center in County Antrim and apologized to her. Prosecutors also told the jury about a letter Donaldson wrote to Complainant A in 2020, in which he expressed remorse for causing “hurt, pain and distress” and asked for forgiveness for his “sinful nature.”
Donaldson said these apologies referred to other issues, not abuse, which never happened and were made up by the complainants.
Walsh said both victims kept their memories “locked inside” until they reached “turning points” in adulthood, which led to the decision to report the crimes to police in 2024. Walsh said neither woman had complete recollection and some memories were “fragmentary” but they were telling the truth. “This is what happened and they decided to publicize it.”
The prosecutor said Eleanor Donaldson knew of the risk her husband posed but instead of intervening she “facilitated” the abuse. The hearing heard that Jeffrey Donaldson had a brief affair with a woman in 2008 and that his wife, who suspected another affair, had a listening device placed on her car in 2020.
Donaldson’s barrister Kieran Vaughan KC said there was no medical or forensic evidence and urged the jury not to be swept away by the wave of emotion: “When all is said and done, that’s what it comes down to, their word against his.”
He disputed the complainants’ statements, saying some of the allegations were contrary to belief and “nonsense”. Vaughan said the jury “had to be sure” to convict. “Anything less won’t do. Doubt isn’t good enough. You have to be sure.”
Until his arrest, Donaldson was the epitome of unionist integrity. He was born into a Presbyterian family in the fishing village of Kilkeel. He married Eleanor in 1987 and apprenticed with the Ulster Unionist party before joining the DUP in 2003. He was knighted for his political services in 2016 and became DUP leader in 2021.
