Former and current members of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) knew of allegations about the former leader Jeffrey Donaldson but did not share them, the party has said.<\/p>\n
Information about Donaldson was not reported through \u201cappropriate channels\u201d and left the party unable to formally respond, the DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The admission came as new claims about Donaldson\u2019s conduct engulfed the party in crisis a week after he was convicted of sexual abuse <\/a>against children in a case that shocked Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n It is alleged that the former Lagan Valley MP sexually pestered women, visited a gay sauna while denouncing homosexuality and got drunk on foreign trips \u2013 and vomited over the mayor of Beijing \u2013 while professing to be a teetotaller.<\/p>\n The claims came after a jury at Newry crown court on 22 June unanimously found the 63-year-old guilty of 18 sexual offences, including one count of rape, against two women when they were children. He is to be sentenced in September. The Belfast Telegraph reported that he is expected to appeal.<\/p>\n The DUP joined other parties in welcoming the verdict<\/a> and stressed that it had suspended Donaldson when he was first charged in 2024. However its hopes of containing the political damage have dissolved amid a clamour over what the party knew \u2013 and when \u2013 about other misconduct by Donaldson.<\/p>\n The DUP announced an independent review into its handling of information about Donaldson, but other parties at Stormont questioned the investigation\u2019s credibility and transparency. \u201cIt is not tenable for the DUP to be hiring those who will be investigating extremely grave allegations against their former party leader,\u201d said Sorcha Eastwood, an Alliance MP who won Donaldson\u2019s seat after he stepped down in 2024.<\/p>\n Some commentators called it the biggest crisis in the DUP\u2019s history. Wallace Thompson, a founding member, said the party\u2019s traditional emphasis on moral rectitude amplified the fallout. \u201cIt is almost like a nuclear explosion in political terms,\u201d he told the BBC<\/a>. The party\u2019s late founder, Ian Paisley, would be turning in his grave, said Thompson.<\/p>\n