The trial of the former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson for sexual offences has begun at Newry Crown Court.
Donaldson, with an address in Dromore, Co Down, is accused of 18 offences – one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency with or towards a child, and 13 counts of indecent assault on a female, on dates between 1987 and 2008. He denies the charges.
The 63-year-old was present in court on Tuesday for the first stage of the trial, the selection and swearing in of a jury under the judge Paul Ramsey. Proceedings will resume on Wednesday morning with the opening of the prosecution case.
Donaldson arrived at court shortly after 9am and was accompanied into the building by his solicitor John McBurney.
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His wife, Eleanor Donaldson (60), with the same address, is charged with five counts of aiding and abetting in connection with the charges faced by her husband. She denies the charges.
Eleanor Donaldson was not present in court as she has been ruled unfit to stand trial on the basis of medical evidence.
Instead, she will face a trial of the facts, which will run concurrently with her husband’s trial. A trial of the facts takes the place of a criminal trial where a court has ruled the defendant is medically unfit to stand trial.
It will run concurrently with her husband’s trial, and the jury will determine, on the basis of evidence already given, whether the defendant committed the acts they are charged with
It cannot result in a conviction, but the jury can make a finding that the defendant committed the act, or it can acquit.
The trial of the two accused was originally due to begin in March of last year, but was postponed twice due to a deterioration in the mental health of Eleanor Donaldson.
Jeffrey Donaldson, a long-standing MP for Lagan Valley, resigned as DUP leader and was suspended from the party after he was arrested and charged in March 2024.
Weeks before his arrest, he had led the DUP back into Stormont after a two-year boycott of Northern Ireland’s powersharing institutions. The then deputy leader, Gavin Robinson, the MP for east Belfast, took over as DUP leader.
