Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party, was convicted Monday of historic sexual offenses committed against two women when they were children — marking one of the most high-profile criminal cases the British-run region has seen in recent memory.
A jury at Newry Crown Court found Donaldson guilty on one count of rape, 13 counts of indecent assault, and four counts of gross indecency. The offenses were committed against two victims at various times between 1985 and 2008. Donaldson had denied every charge brought against him.
At 63 years old, Donaldson was among the most recognizable political figures in Northern Ireland when authorities arrested and charged him in March 2024. He immediately resigned as head of the Democratic Unionist Party — a party founded by Protestant clergyman Ian Paisley during three decades of sectarian violence that came to an end with a peace agreement in 1998.
Donaldson held the distinction of being Northern Ireland’s longest-serving member of the British parliament, having first won election in 1997. Just two months before his arrest, he had negotiated an agreement with the British government over post-Brexit trade arrangements, which enabled the Democratic Unionist Party to end its boycott of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government.
In 2016, he was knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth in recognition of his contributions to public service.
The same jury also determined that Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor, had aided and abetted her husband in the offenses. She too had denied the charges against her.
Last month, the court ruled Eleanor Donaldson unfit to stand trial because of mental health concerns, which meant she could not be found criminally guilty in the traditional sense. Instead, she faced what is known as a trial of the facts — a separate concurrent proceeding in which jurors were asked only to determine whether she committed the acts, not whether she was legally guilty or not guilty.
