Jeffrey Donaldson found guilty of child sexual offences including rape

Donaldson on his way into Newry crown court this morning. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters View image in fullscreen Donaldson on his way into Newry crown court this morning. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters Jeffrey Donaldson found guilty of child sexual offences including rape Former DUP leader convicted of 18 offences against two victims after high-profile trial that gripped Northern Ireland Jeffrey Donaldson has been found guilty of sexual offences against two victims who were children at the time of the abuse. The former Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader faces a potential jail sentence after a jury at Newry crown court on Monday convicted him of 18 offences including rape, indecent assault and gross indecency. The verdict completed a stunning fall for an establishment figure who had dominated unionism and played a key role at Westminster during post-Brexit negotiations over Northern Ireland’s position in the UK. The jury found that Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor, had aided and abetted her husband’s offending. Judge Paul Ramsey deemed the 60-year-old unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds so she faced a trial of facts, which tests evidence but does not result in a criminal conviction. In a four-week trial , Donaldson, 63, pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and other counts 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 recall the “pain and hurt still so visible” on the two victims, referred to as complainants 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 she still lived with the memory of Donaldson’s assault: “What happened that night will live with me for ever.” The verdict will shred what was left of the reputation of the former Lagan Valley MP, a polished media performer and towering political figure in Northern Ireland who helped to broker the Windsor framework. His arrest in March 2024 shocked Westminster and Stormont. Donaldson stood down as an MP and resigned from the DUP, which scrubbed his name and image from its website and appointed Gavin Robinson as the party’s new leader. A phalanx of cameras greeted Donaldson each day as he arrived at the court in Newry, 40 miles (65km) south of Belfast. Flanked in the dock by court employees, he appeared composed and took notes during proceedings and for two days in the witness box proclaimed his innocence. Complainant B said she was raped when she was of primary school age and was of secondary school age when Donaldson lifted up her top and fondled her breasts. The jury heard that Donaldson’s wife witnessed part of the latter incident and walked away. Complainant A said she was of primary school age when Donaldson began to be “physical” with her and put his hands up her top. She recalled waking up in the night on several occasions with a sex