Ex-leader of Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party sentenced to 15 years for sex abuse

LONDON (AP) — Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison for the rape and sex abuse of two girls decades ago.

The judge said that Donaldson, 63, had expressed no “regret, apology or shame” for crimes that had blighted the victims’ lives.

Donaldson was one of Northern Ireland’s best-known politicians until his arrest stunned his political colleagues and wider society two years ago.

He was convicted in June of one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 indecent assault charges involving two girls between 1985 and 2008. He had denied the charges.

Donaldson led the Democratic Unionist Party, the biggest party in favor of keeping Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, from 2021 until 2024. He resigned as leader of the conservative DUP after his arrest and gave up the seat in the U.K. House of Commons that he had held since 1997.

The DUP said in a statement that Donaldson “deserves every day of the lengthy prison sentence he has to serve” for his “vile and disgusting crimes.”

Judge Paul Ramsey said that the ex-politician had undergone a “catastrophic descent into disgrace.” He sentenced him at Newry Crown Court, south of Belfast, to 11 years for offenses against one victim and four years for the other, to run consecutively.

“There 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,” the judge said.

Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 60, was found to have aided and abetted her husband’s offenses for witnessing the abuse and doing nothing to intervene. Because of mental health issues, she faced only a fact-finding hearing that couldn’t result in a conviction.

The two victims testified that Donaldson groped them when they were around primary school age. The older of the two, referred to in court as Complainant B, said that he raped her.

The Associated Press doesn’t name victims of alleged sexual violence, and U.K. law protects their identities from the media for life.

During his trial, Donaldson denied all the allegations against him. He testified that the rape “just didn’t happen.”

Catherine Kierans, the head of the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland’s Serious Crime Unit, said that Donaldson “has never accepted responsibility for his offending, nor shown any remorse.”

“This case shows that sexual abuse can be hidden behind a facade of respectability,” she said. “It also shows that no individual, irrespective of their position, status or public reputation, is beyond the reach of the law.”

The victims welcomed the sentence, but said nothing could undo the damage of Donaldson’s crimes.

“My childhood was stolen from me and I will never get it back,” victim A said in a statement read by a police officer outside court.

“The conviction does not erase the abuse or undo the impact of what happened to me, and I will always carry the consequences of it.

“But those responsible do not control me now. They forever changed me, but they will not take my future. The cycle is being broken and it ends with me.”

Victim B said that “what happened to me as a child has affected everything since then, every day and every relationship I have ever had.

“I stood up, many years later, because for me this is about drawing a line in the sand and knowing that the Donaldsons can no longer hurt anyone else,” she said.

Donaldson’s lawyer, Kieran Vaughan, said at a presentencing hearing that his client had achieved “significant things in his life.”

“These convictions obliterate all those achievements he has made in his life,” he said.

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press