Former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson found guilty of historical rape and indecent assaults against children

Former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been found guilty of multiple sexual offences including rape.

The 63-year-old committed the crimes between 1985 and 2008, when the two women were children.

He denied all the charges, calling them "simply not true" and "just unbelievable", but the jury on Monday convicted him of rape, 13 indecent assaults and four counts of gross indecency.

The former MP, once Northern Ireland's best-known politician, stood with his hands folded and showed no reaction.

Both victims gave evidence during the trial in Newry, as did Donaldson over two days earlier this month.

His wife, Lady Eleanor Donaldson, was found to have aided and abetted his crimes.

She faced a trial of the facts on mental health grounds, which tested the evidence but could not result in a criminal conviction.

The former DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) leader was found guilty of nine indecent assaults and one rape, between 1985 and 1991, against the older of the two women (Complainant B).

The other victim (referred to in court as Complainant A) was abused between 1999 and 2008 and said she was first abused when she was primary school age.

She told the jury Donaldson used a light, possibly a torch, to look at her "private parts" and that she had told his wife about the incident.

The woman told the court: "I knew by the look on her face she knew I was telling the truth… once she identified I was telling the truth, she did nothing about it."

She said the couple had "laughed off" an incident where Donaldson put his tongue in her mouth, and claimed he touched her breasts "skin on skin" when she was a child.

The jury heard Donaldson sent her a letter in 2020 expressing "regret" for "all the hurt, pain and distress I have caused". The former politician claimed it was about other behaviour and not related to sexual abuse.

The older woman (Complainant B) told the court she remembered two incidents "vividly".

She said Donaldson had put his hand down her underwear, pulled her legs apart with his feet and raped her. Like the other victim, she said it happened when she was of primary school age.

The second incident she described was Donaldson lifting her top and touching her breasts when she was at secondary school.

She told the court Eleanor Donaldson had witnessed part of the incident but "walked away".

When challenged by the defence, she replied: "Everything I am saying is the truth… no matter how many questions people ask me it will never change that."

'Destroy their political reputation'

The woman said some of the abuse by Donaldson was while she stayed at the Christian Family Centre in Armoy in the 1990s, when she was having problems with drugs.

Claire Selfridge, daughter of the centre's founders, testified that Complainant B had told her she'd been abused in her bedroom.

A police interview with Pastor Stephen Matthews was also played in court.

He said she'd told him about the abuse but urged him not to contact the authorities as "it would destroy their political reputation" and she didn't want that.

Audio of the Donaldsons' police interviews was also played in court.

In one section, the former DUP leader was asked about the rape and replied: "I'm sorry, but I can't get my head around this notion."

Asked about the claim he used a light to look at Complainant A's body, he told police he "wasn't doing anything untoward".

Mrs Donaldson was heard telling officers in interview that the claims were a "massive, massive shock".

Regarding the rape allegation, she told them: "I would say that didn't happen. Absolutely not, oh my goodness."

Jeffrey Donaldson's lawyer, Kieran Vaughan KC, said there were "significant and fundamental issues" with the women's credibility. However, prosecutor Rosemary Walsh told jurors there was "no reason" for the women to lie.

"What the evidence shows when it is pieced together is that they are telling the truth about what happened to them," she said in her closing speech.

Jeffrey Donaldson has been remanded into custody and will be sentenced later this year. The judge told him to expect a "lengthy" sentence.

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