Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is today facing a ‘lengthy’ prison sentence after being found guilty of raping a woman when she was a minor during 23 years of child sex abuse.
The former DUP leader, 63, was convicted of all 18 charges by a jury at Newry Crown Court on Monday.
The offences related to two women when they were children and included one count of rape, 13 of indecent assault and four of gross indecency.
This included kissing and putting his tongue in the mouth of one victim when she was of primary school age. He also put his hands up her top to grope her.
His other victim was also in primary school when he raped her. He indecently assaulted her on nine occasions, including once in front of his own wife who had covered it up.
Instead of intervening, Lady Eleanor Donaldson turned, walked away and pulled the door behind her as she left the room.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was arrested in 2024 and told police and the jury that the allegations made by the women, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were ‘unbelievable’ and ‘simply not true’.
But a letter of apology he wrote to one of the women he sexually abused undermined his claims of innocence in court.
‘I know how deep the wounds are caused by my sinful and selfish actions,’ he wrote – and told her that he hoped God would ‘lift a sinner out of the deep pit of sin.’
The jury took just ten hours to convict him of 18 offences committed between 1985 and 2008.
His wife, Lady Eleanor Donaldson, 60, was found to have aided and abetted him by turning a blind eye, despite witnessing some of the abuse. She was too ill to stand trial.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (pictured today) is facing prison after he was found guilty of raping a woman when she was a child and 17 other child sex offences
The politician’s wife Lady Eleanor Donaldson also faced several counts of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offences. She was found to have committed those acts
A prison van carrying former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to jail leaves Newry Crown Court, where he was found guilty of 18 historical sex offences against two women when they were children, including one count of rape
Sir Jeffrey stood in the dock at Newry to hear the verdicts and remained unmoved as each guilty charge was returned. Judge Paul Ramsey told him a ‘lengthy’ prison sentence is inevitable before remanding him in custody.
He will be sentenced in September. He left court in handcuffs in the back of a prison van and will be placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
Donaldson wrote a letter to Complainant A in 2020 to say he regretted ‘hurt, pain and distress’ he caused.
He claimed that the letter did not refer to sex abuse allegations but other behaviour.
Despite his claims that these words had nothing to do with sexual abuse, the jury did not believe him.
Complainant B said that in the 1990s, years after the abuse, Donaldson apologised ‘for what had happened in the past’ at a meeting held at a Christian centre where she had stayed while dealing with drug issues.
Donaldson testified that he had apologised for making her uncomfortable at the meeting – not for any abuse.
At 2.15pm on Monday Donaldson was asked to stand as the court clerk asked the foreman of the jury to read the guilty verdicts.
Donaldson was first elected to Parliament in 1997 and was the longest-serving Northern Ireland MP, representing Lagan Valley in County Down.
Eleanor Donaldson was found to have aided and abetted her husband by witnessing the abuse and failing to intervene, following a trial of the facts, which tested the evidence but could not result in a criminal conviction.
She was not in court on mental health grounds and did not participate in proceedings.
Jeffrey Donaldson had pleaded not guilty to all the offences having been arrested just over two years ago.
The women he abused as children, called complainants A and B in court, both gave evidence at the four-week trial.
Sir Jeffrey spent two days giving evidence, where he repeatedly denied the allegations.
Donaldson is facing jail after abusing two women when they were girls
Donaldson testified – emotionally at times – over two days and denied all the allegations against him, saying he was ‘crystal clear’ he did not rape one of the girls when she was a child decades ago.
The two complainants, who said they were abused as children, testified that Donaldson groped them when they were around primary school age. The older of the two, referred to in court as Complainant B, said he raped her.
‘It just didn’t happen, I am absolutely crystal clear about that,’ Donaldson said.
‘It is not something I would ever have done, it is just simply not true.’
Jeffrey Donaldson, a heavyweight in Northern Irish unionist politics for decades, was suspended from the DUP after the allegations emerged
After the 18 guilty verdicts were delivered, Judge Paul Ramsey expressed his ‘gratitude and thanks’ to the jury.
Before they left the room, the jury members were extend exemption from jury service for life.
Prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh KC then confirmed that victim impact statements would be prepared ahead of sentencing.
The judge said there would inevitably be a ‘lengthy sentence of imprisonment’.
Donaldson was remanded into custody and showed no emotion as he was led from the court.
There will be a review hearing on September 11 before a sentencing hearing later in the month.
The judge also said Donaldson would be placed on the sex offenders register.
He was one of Northern Ireland’s best-known politicians when he was arrested and charged in March 2024.
He immediately stepped down as head of the Democratic Unionist Party, the region’s largest pro-British unionist party.
The long-standing Lagan Valley MP had assumed the leadership of the DUP in 2021 after a chaotic period that saw Arlene Foster ousted in an internal revolt, only for her successor Edwin Poots to suffer a similar fate weeks after taking over.
Donaldson, who had been narrowly defeated by Poots in the first leadership contest, was returned unopposed.
He was seen as a safe pair of hands who would bring stability to a party that had been rocked to its core by a summer of upheaval.
He was at the height of his long political career when police officers knocked on his door early in the morning on March 28 2024.
When detectives arrived at his house in Dromore, Co Down, at 6am that morning to arrest him over historical sexual offences everything he had built across four decades in politics imploded.
Within hours he had quit as DUP leader and was suspended from the party.
Sinn Féin MP John Finucane has said his thoughts are with the victims following the conviction.
Speaking to media at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, Mr Finucane said: ‘First and foremost our thoughts are with the victims, I think they deserve huge credit and continued support for the bravery that they have shown in putting themselves forward and stepping forward to give evidence to enter into the criminal justice process, and I think firstly all of our thoughts are with them on a day like today.
‘This can’t be easy and they deserve our continued support in the time ahead.’
Ulster Unionist leader Jon Burrows said: ‘Today a jury has found Jeffrey Donaldson guilty on all charges.
‘These are among the gravest crimes imaginable, committed against the most vulnerable by a man who spent his career demanding the public’s trust.
‘I want to pay tribute to the brave women who gave evidence against Jeffrey Donaldson about the abuse he inflicted on them.
‘Their ordeal has been unimaginable.
‘The fact that Donaldson showed no remorse and called his victims liars is reprehensible.’
