At Newry Crown Court, a stone-faced Jeffrey Donaldson stood between two security guards with his hands clasped as the jury foreman read out the verdict on each of 18 charges. The former Democratic Unionist party leader showed no visible emotion, staring straight ahead as he was convicted of one count of rape, 13 counts of indecent assault and four of gross indecency against two women who were children at the time of the abuse, spanning from 1985 to 2008. The jury of five women and seven men delivered their unanimous decision after three days of deliberations, ending a four-week trial that had gripped Northern Ireland.
Donaldson, 63, had entered the trial calm and relaxed, smartly dressed in a blue suit and green tie, but by the end he was alone in the dock. His wife, Lady Eleanor Donaldson, was not by his side; the judge, Paul Ramsey, had deemed her unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds, and she faced only a trial of the facts. The jury found that she had aided and abetted some of the offences, but she will face no criminal penalty.
“Jeffrey Donaldson convicted of 18 child sexual offences including rape, remanded in custody.”
Prosecutors had urged the jury to recall the “pain and hurt still so visible” on the two complainants, identified only as Complainant A and B. “The sexual abuse they suffered has consequences – consequences that cannot be ignored and brushed under the carpet any longer,” said Rosemary Walsh KC. Complainant B told the trial: “What happened that night will live with me for ever.” In the witness box, Donaldson called his accusers liars and denied that a 2020 letter to one of them, in which he referred to “deep wounds” caused by his “sinful and selfish actions,” related to sex-abuse allegations.
Judge Ramsey remanded Donaldson into immediate custody and told him he would be placed on the UK’s National Sex Offenders Register, adding that a “lengthy” prison sentence was inevitable. Sentencing is scheduled for 25 September. Donaldson’s legal team did not immediately indicate whether he would appeal.
The verdict completed a stunning fall for a man who had dominated unionism for decades, served as an MP for 29 years, and helped broker the Windsor framework after Brexit. His arrest in March 2024 shocked Westminster and Stormont; the DUP suspended his membership and scrubbed his name from its website. Unionist rivals have called for him to lose his 2016 knighthood.