{"id":598344,"date":"2026-08-19T18:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T18:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/598344\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T18:40:10","slug":"commissioner-calls-for-single-review-into-actions-of-jeffrey-donaldson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/598344\/","title":{"rendered":"Commissioner calls for single review into actions of Jeffrey Donaldson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Commissioner for Victims of Crime in Northern Ireland has called for a single review into the actions of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Donaldson.<\/p>\n

The former DUP leader was convicted at Newry Crown Court earlier this year of 18 sex offences, including one count of rape, relating to the abuse of two women when they were children.<\/p>\n

The offences were committed between 1985 and 2008.<\/p>\n

Donaldson has since been stripped of his knighthood and removed from the Privy Council. He is currently being held at Maghaberry Prison awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n

Since the conviction, the DUP, and also the UUP \u2013 of which Donaldson was previously a member, have announced reviews of his time in their parties.<\/p>\n

The Northern Ireland Assembly has separately set up a process looking into behaviour and potential incidents within Parliament Buildings during Donaldson\u2019s time as an MLA, while the Civil Service has launched\u00a0a \u201cscoping exercise\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime in Northern Ireland Geraldine Hanna, said the Secretary of State Chris Bryant should commission a single, coordinated, independent review.<\/p>\n

She said multiple processes risk missing overarching issues and potentially requiring victims to tell their story multiple times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge the Secretary of State to commission a single, coordinated, independent review into what was known about the conduct of Jeffrey Donaldson, how concerns were handled across political and institutional settings, and what lessons should be learned to protect victims and prevent future failures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch a review should be trauma-informed, tightly scoped, with a short but realistic time frame and designed to avoid retraumatisation through repeated or poorly coordinated engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of separate reviews have been announced and while each may have a legitimate purpose, there is a real risk that multiple reviews with differing remits and leads could duplicate work, create confusion, miss over-arching issues and require victims to tell their story more than once.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis last point means that this approach is not trauma-informed and risks leading to further harm to victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanna added: \u201cWe need to understand how concerns were handled across political and institutional settings, and what lessons should be learned to protect victims and prevent future failures.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the alleged behaviour at Westminster there is also a strong argument for his conduct as a MP to also be appropriately scrutinised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most fitting way to honour the courage of Donaldson\u2019s victims who spoke out is to ensure that their experiences lead to rigorous scrutiny, accountability and lasting learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said: \u201cThe crimes committed by Jeffrey Donaldson were heinous and shocking. Our thoughts are first and foremost with the victims, and we commend their immense courage in coming forward to give evidence.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Ireland<\/p>\n

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\u201cChild sexual abuse causes devastating, lasting harm. The criminal justice system exists to hold perpetrators accountable \u2013 as it has rightly done in this case, alongside Donaldson being stripped of his knighthood and Privy Council status.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral independent reviews are already under way into these matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secretary of State will issue a formal response to the correspondence on behalf of the government shortly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Commissioner for Victims of Crime in Northern Ireland has called for a single review into the actions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-598344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598344","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=598344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}