{"id":93015,"date":"2025-10-20T17:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/93015\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T17:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:28:10","slug":"trial-of-jeffrey-donaldson-and-his-wife-over-alleged-sex-offences-delayed-due-to-ill-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/93015\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial of Jeffrey Donaldson and his wife over alleged sex offences delayed due to ill health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During a brief hearing at Newry Crown Court on Monday, Judge Paul Ramsey vacated the trial date of November 3<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1_Jeffrey-Donaldson.jpg\" alt=\"Jeffrey Donaldson and wife Eleanor arrive at Newry Court for the Preliminary Enquiry on July 3\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Jeffrey Donaldson and wife Eleanor arrive at Newry Court for the Preliminary Enquiry on July 3(Image: Justin Kernoghan\/Belfast Live)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">The trial of former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his wife Lady Donaldson on charges relating to alleged historical sex offences is to be delayed, a judge has confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">During a brief hearing at Newry Crown Court on Monday, Judge Paul Ramsey vacated the trial date of November 3 after receiving updates on reports relating to Eleanor Donaldson\u2019s health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">The judge said it now looked as if the trial would take place in 2026. Jeffrey Donaldson, 62, who did not attend the hearing, has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">The charges include one count of rape as well as allegations of indecent assault and gross indecency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">The charges span a time period between 1985 and 2008, and there are two alleged victims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">Eleanor Donaldson, 59, of Dublinhill Road, Dromore, who also did not attend court, is facing charges of aiding and abetting, which she denies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=39e53cb8-b266-4e33-8d00-e9f7a38f420c&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Sign up hereLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a brief hearing at Newry Crown Court on Monday, Judge Paul Ramsey vacated the trial date of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,42,43,15304,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-93015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-courts","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sexual-abuse","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93015","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=93015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}