Former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson found guilty of rape and indecent assault

Former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been found guilty of multiple sexual offences including rape.

The 63-year-old committed the crimes - which related to two women when they were children - between 1985 to 2008.

He denied all the charges but the jury convicted him of rape, 13 indecent assaults and four counts of gross indecency.

Donaldson stood with his hands folded and showed no reaction when the verdict was read out.

Both of the victims gave evidence in court in Newry, as did Donaldson over two days.

His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, was found to have aided and abetted his crimes after a trial of the facts, due to mental health reasons.

Such a process tests the evidence but does not lead to a criminal conviction. The 60-year-old had denied the charges.

The former DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) leader was found guilty of nine indecent assaults and one rape, between 1985 and 1991, against the older of the two women.

The other victim (referred to in court as Complainant A) was abused between 1999 and 2008 and said she was first abused when she was primary school age.

She told the jury Donaldson used a light, possibly a torch, to look at her "private parts" and that she had told his wife about the incident.

The woman told the court: "I knew by the look on her face she knew I was telling the truth… once she identified I was telling the truth, she did nothing about it."

She said the couple "laughed off" an incident where Donaldson put his tongue in her mouth and claimed he had touched her breasts "skin on skin" when she was a child.

The jury heard Donaldson had sent her letter in 2020 expressing "regret" for "all the hurt, pain and distress I have caused". The former politician claimed it was about other behaviour and not related to sexual abuse.

The older woman (Complainant B) told the court she remembered two incidents "vividly".

She said Donaldson had put his hand down her underwear, pulled her legs apart with his feet and raped her. Like the other victim, she said it happened when she was of primary school age.

The second incident she described was Donaldson lifting her top and touching her breasts when she was at secondary school. She told the court Eleanor Donaldson had seen part of the incident but "walked away".

When challenged by the defence, she replied: "Everything I am saying is the truth… no matter how many questions people ask me it will never change that."