Jeffrey Donaldson sentenced to 15 years for child sexual offences

Jeffrey Donaldson has been sentenced to a total of 15 years for sexual offences against two women who were children when he abused them three decades ago.

The sentence at Newry crown court on Thursday completed the downfall of a former Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader who once dominated unionism in Northern Ireland.

Donaldson, 63, was found guilty in June of 18 counts of sexual abuse including one count of rape, spanning a period from 1985 to 2008.

Statements by the victims painted a harrowing picture of the abuse and its enduring impact on their lives. The judge, Paul Ramsey, said the offences merited a lengthy jail term.

The sentencing drew a significant police and media presence to Newry court, 40 miles south of Belfast.

The former Lagan Valley MP was expected to return to Maghaberry prison, where he has been held since his conviction. He plans to appeal.

The DUP has disowned its former leader and condemned his crimes but faced a backlash from supporters amid allegations the party turned a blind eye to other misbehaviour by Donaldson, including drunkenness and sexual harassment.

The jury in the four-week trial found that his wife, Eleanor, aided and abetted her husband’s offending. The 60-year-old was deemed unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds and faced a trial of the facts, which tests evidence but does not result in a criminal conviction.

The case triggered a stunning fall for an establishment figure who was knighted and played a key role at Westminster during post-Brexit negotiations over Northern Ireland’s position in the UK.

The victims, known as Complainants A and B, said Donaldson was a predator who had abused his position of trust.

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. She recalled waking up in the night with a sexual feeling and having nightmares about “men doing horrible things to children”.

Donaldson once kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth and when she later complained he laughed it off as a joke, the court heard. He also used a light to look at her genitals, she said.

The trial heard that in the 1990s the victim told a pastor about the abuse, after which Donaldson met and apologised to her at a Christian centre in County Antrim. Prosecutors also told the jury of a letter Donaldson wrote to Complainant A in 2020 in which he expressed regret for causing “hurt, pain and distress” and asked forgiveness for his “sinful nature”.

At the trial he denied wrongdoing and said the apologies related to other matters.

The prosecutor, Rosemary Walsh, told the trial both victims kept memories “locked away inside” until turning points in adulthood prompted the decision to report the offences to police in 2024.

Complainant B’s distress while giving evidence was “palpable” and she found the trial “a terrible experience”, said Walsh. Complainant B struggled so much with the legacy of the abuse she sometimes wished she could die, Walsh told the court last month.

The other victim, Complainant A, wrote in her victim impact statement of feeling shame and anger that her childhood had been “stolen”.

Until his arrest in March 2024, Donaldson embodied unionist probity. Born into a Presbyterian family in Kilkeel, he married Eleanor in 1987 and served apprenticeships in the Ulster Unionist party before defecting to the DUP in 2004.

Donaldson was knighted for political services in 2016 and became DUP leader in 2021, before resigning in 2024. After his conviction, King Charles stripped him of his knighthood in July.