{"id":655481,"date":"2026-10-15T12:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655481\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T12:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:22:12","slug":"jeffrey-donaldson-sentenced-to-15-years-in-prison-for-rape-and-child-sex-assaults-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655481\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Donaldson sentenced to 15 years in prison for rape and child sex assaults \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former DUP<\/a> leader Jeffrey Donaldson<\/a> has been sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison for 18 sexual offences, including the rape of a child. <\/p>\n

Donaldson (63) was convicted at Newry<\/a> Crown Court in June of 18 sex offences elating to the abuse of two women<\/a> when they were children, on dates from 1985 to 2008. <\/p>\n

He had denied the offences but the jury convicted him of one count of rape, 13 counts of indecent assault and four counts of gross indecency.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Donaldson was sentenced 11 years in prison on the rape charge and the other offences against his first victim, and a further four years for the offences committed against his second victim, to run consecutively.<\/p>\n

Sentencing Donaldson, Judge Paul Ramsey said that since his conviction, the former Lagan Valley MP had \u201cdoubled down in his denials\u201d of the abuse. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Jeffrey Donaldson \u2018deserves every day\u2019 of 15-year sentence for sex offences, says DUPOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has not been, and doubtless will not be, one word of regret, apology or shame from this man to at least provide his victims with some crumb of comfort,\u201d the judge said. <\/p>\n

The judge told Donaldson it was a \u201cdisturbing and disquieting case\u201d and \u201chaving reached the very heights of public office\u201d, his was a \u201ccatastrophic descent into disgrace\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only through the courage, resourcefulness and determination of two young women that you\u2019ve been brought to justice,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Donaldson\u2019s victims were in court in Newry for the sentencing, and listened, at times in tears, as the judge read extracts from their victim impact statements which detailed the devastating effect his offending and the \u201cretraumatising\u201d trial process had on them. <\/p>\n

One of the victims said it had been a \u201cliving nightmare\u201d and the \u201cpublic nature\u201d of the case had had a \u201cprofound impact on my social life and career\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018The only person telling lies is you\u2019 \u2013 the full story of Jeffrey Donaldson\u2019s abuse trialOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cMy truth, that was deeply private and painful, has become public knowledge,\u201d her statement said. <\/p>\n

The other victim, addressing Donaldson and his wife, Eleanor Donaldson, directly, said \u201cyou both could have saved me from court … you both implied not only that none of it happened, but accused me of making it up, and it made everything you did so much worse. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou took away my ability to trust people.\u201d <\/p>\n

The judge said that, having observed the \u201cdemeanour and reaction\u201d of both victims while giving evidence, he had \u201cno doubt whatsoever of the permanent mark that this abuse has left on each of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donaldson stood in the dock, dressed in a blue suit and white shirt, and showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Take Mr Donaldson down\u2019: The rise and fall of former DUP star Jeffrey DonaldsonOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The pre-sentence report provided to the court noted Donaldson had \u201cstoutly maintained his denial of guilt\u201d and assessed him as having a \u201cmedium\u201d risk of reoffending. <\/p>\n

Donaldson was placed on the sex offenders\u2019 register for life and will be subject to a number of other conditions, including a ban on working with children and vulnerable adults. <\/p>\n

The former DUP MP has been in Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim awaiting sentencing since the end of the trial in June. Since his conviction, Donaldson has been stripped of his knighthood and removed from the Privy Council. He is appealing his conviction. <\/p>\n

Eleanor Donaldson was found to have aided and abetted his crimes after a trial of the facts, which was granted on mental health grounds, and is appealing the outcome. <\/p>\n

She cannot be given a prison sentence but could be given a treatment order or an absolute discharge. <\/p>\n

The judge said on Thursday he would \u201cdeal with her at a later stage, when I am in possession of all the relevant documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Why the fallout from Jeffrey Donaldson\u2019s conviction keeps growing<\/p>\n

During the five-week trial, both victims gave evidence that Donaldson sexually abused them as children. <\/p>\n

Complainant A gave evidence of inappropriate touching and kissing by Donaldson and an incident where he used a light to examine her genitals.<\/p>\n

Complainant B told the trial she had been raped as a child of primary-school age by Donaldson and later sexually assaulted by him.<\/p>\n

At a pre-sentencing hearing last month, prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh spoke of various tariffs for the offences, several of which carried a maximum sentence of two years. But other offences carried a maximum sentence of between 10 and 14 years under historical tariffs for crimes, she told the court. <\/p>\n

She said historical legislation did not differentiate between a child and an adult victim in all the counts, so the disparity in age between Donaldson and his victims should be considered an \u201caggravating\u201d factor in sentencing. She said Complainant B was \u201cnine or 10\u201d during some of the offending by Donaldson when he was 25 or 26 years old. She had described how she felt \u201csick\u201d when he abused her and \u201cwanted to scream out\u201d but thought it was her fault. <\/p>\n

Complainant B suffered other types of sexual assault by Donaldson when she was as young as \u201cseven or eight\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Woman sentenced to three months for breaching anonymity of Donaldson victimsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Donaldson\u2019s barrister, Kieran Vaughan, said during that hearing that the former politician was a man of \u201cprevious good character\u201d who \u201cdid achieve significant things\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he added: \u201cThese convictions obliterate all those achievements he has made in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison for 18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26189,21753,42,14062,43,2443,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-655481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-democratic-unionist-party","tag-down","tag-headlines","tag-jeffrey-donaldson","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655481","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=655481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}