A trial date has been set in the case of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson who faces a series of sex offences.<\/p>\n
The trial is now scheduled to begin on 26 May and has been listed for four weeks.<\/p>\n
It is the third time a trial date has been set in the case, the other two have both been missed.<\/p>\n
Delays in the case have centred on the fitness of Mr Donaldson’s wife to also stand trial.<\/p>\n
Medical assessments have taken place on Eleanor Donaldson to establish her health condition.<\/p>\n
She faces charges of aiding and abetting her husband.<\/p>\n
A hearing at Newry Crown Court has heard that Ms Donaldson is “seriously unwell”.<\/p>\n
However a defence barrister said there was nothing to prevent the court moving ahead to set a date for the trial to commence.<\/p>\n
“Mrs Donaldson is seriously unwell, however there is no reason the court can’t identify a trial date in the hope my client is well come trial,” her barrister said.<\/p>\n
Ms Donaldson, 59, faces five charges including aiding and abetting her husband. She denies the charges.<\/p>\n
Mr Donaldson, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges including one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 charges of indecent assault.<\/p>\n
The offences allegedly involve two victims and are said to have occurred over a 23-year period between 1985 and 2008.<\/p>\n
Neither defendant appeared for today’s short hearing.<\/p>\n
They have been excused from recent hearings and it has been 11 months since either has been seen in court.<\/p>\n
There have been more than a dozen hearings in an attempt to progress the case.<\/p>\n
Issues around Ms Donaldson’s health have delayed progress.<\/p>\n
A trial date has already been set twice and postponed twice.<\/p>\n
The judge agreed to a prosecution application that would allow both complainants to give their evidence via video link.<\/p>\n
A witness who currently lives in South Africa will also be allowed to testify remotely.<\/p>\n
There will be a further hearing on 27 March to finalise arrangements ahead of the trial date in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trial date has been set in the case of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson who faces a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-276894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}