![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0021f44e-614.jpg\"\/)
\nEleanor Donaldson denies charges of aiding and abetting (File image)<\/p>\n
The trial of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson and his wife Eleanor Donaldson, who are both accused of sexual offences, has been postponed for a second time due to her continuing ill health.<\/p>\n
The couple’s trial had originally been scheduled to begin in March but was postponed until 3 November.<\/p>\n
A judge at Newry Crown Court this morning said it is now likely that it will not take place until next year.<\/p>\n
Judge Eamonn King said he will review the case again on 13 November after being told that the prosecution and defence are awaiting further medical reports on 59-year-old Ms Donaldson.<\/p>\n
She has pleaded not guilty to five charges including aiding and abetting her husband.<\/p>\n
Mr Donaldson, 62, 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
\nEleanor Donaldson denies charges of aiding and abetting (File image)<\/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 at Newry Crown Court for today’s short hearing.<\/p>\n
A lawyer for Ms Donaldson told the court that while all sides were doing their best to ensure the trial could start as scheduled next month, “the medical picture is incomplete.”<\/p>\n
A lawyer for the Public Prosecution Service said the outcome of the medical reports will have ramifications for the progress of the trial.<\/p>\n
The judge said he would vacate the November trial date, but could not set a new date until the court knows the contents of the outstanding medical reports.<\/p>\n
“It looks very much like we are going into next year,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trial of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson and his wife Eleanor Donaldson, who are both accused of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-92493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92493","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=92493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}