Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been convicted of raping a woman when she was a minor. The former DUP leader was found guilty of 18 historical sex offenses involving two women during their childhood at Newry Crown Court. These offenses consist of one count of rape, 13 counts of indecent assault, and four counts of gross indecency.
His wife, Lady Eleanor Donaldson, has also been found guilty of aiding and abetting in relation to historical sex offenses after a trial at the same court. The 63-year-old Northern Irish politician will be sentenced on September 25 in Newry and has been remanded in custody. Donaldson, maintaining his innocence, displayed no reaction to the verdicts.
During the trial, identified as Complainants A and B, both women testified about being abused as children. Donaldson denied the allegations throughout his two-day testimony. Eleanor Donaldson, aged 60, from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denied multiple charges of aiding and abetting her husband, undergoing a trial of the facts on mental health grounds.
In 1985, Donaldson, elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly at 22, became the youngest member at Stormont. He later served as MP for Lagan Valley from 1997 until 2024 when he exited politics due to the onset of sex abuse allegations. Donaldson was knighted by the late Queen in 2016.
One of the controversies in his career involved the MPs’ expenses scandal, where he admitted to claiming expenses for pay-to-view films during hotel stays in London, which he claimed were non-adult films like Star Wars and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. He repaid approximately £600.