{"id":652386,"date":"2026-06-22T15:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652386\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T15:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:41:10","slug":"jeffrey-donaldson-former-dup-leader-found-guilty-of-child-sex-abuse-charges-including-one-count-of-rape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652386\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Donaldson: Former DUP leader found guilty of child sex abuse charges including one count of rape"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donaldson ‘cruel in the extreme’ – DUP leaderpublished at 16:25 BST<\/p>\n

16:25 BST<\/p>\n

The man who took over as Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader after Donaldson’s arrest says he has been found guilty of the “most heinous and despicable crimes”.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media this afternoon, Gavin Robinson says the party indicated over two years ago it would place its “faith in
\nthe criminal justice system to reach a verdict on the allegations made against
\nhim”.<\/p>\n

“Having reached that guilty verdict, we welcome the fact that
\njustice has been done,” he says. <\/p>\n

Robinson says that today the his thoughts are “first and foremost with those innocent
\nvictims whose lives have been impacted the blighted by his predatory and
\nrepugnant behaviour”. <\/p>\n

“What they have been put through, from the initial abuse, through
\nto the impact of having to give evidence and the inevitable traumatisation has
\nbeen wicked,” he says. <\/p>\n

“The impact on the victims of having to come forward and to
\nbe forced by their perpetrator\u2019s denials to give evidence in all the circumstances
\nwas cruel in the extreme,” the DUP leader adds. <\/p>\n

\"GavinImage source, PA Media<\/p>\n

Robinson says that “today, we stand with the victims of his abuse and we salute their bravery and their courage for speaking out”.<\/p>\n

“Regardless of the crime we will always be on the side of the victim and as a society we must do everything possible to encourage those who have been abused to come forward to the police and seek justice through our courts system,” he says. <\/p>\n

“In this case, it is our hope the victims will see this verdict as a vindication of speaking up and speaking truth against one who attempted to control, to manipulate and to silent.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donaldson ‘cruel in the extreme’ – DUP leaderpublished at 16:25 BST 16:25 BST The man who took over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-652386","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\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}