Arabic version: الحكم على جيفري دونالدسون بالسجن 15 عاماً
According to BBC News, former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for child sex offences, including one count of rape. The 63-year-old was sentenced at Newry Crown Court after being convicted in June of all 18 child sex abuse charges.
Judge Paul Ramsey said Donaldson’s crimes, committed between 1985 and 2008, had led to a “catastrophic descent into disgrace”. He imposed 11 years for offences against Victim B and four years for offences against Victim A, with the sentences to run consecutively. The judge cited the prolonged nature of the offending, the victims’ youth and the age difference between them and Donaldson as aggravating factors.
Donaldson will serve half of the 15-year term in custody because the offences predated the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008, making him eligible for 50% remission. If his appeal against the convictions is unsuccessful, he will be released at the end of 2033 and spend the remainder of the sentence under supervision in the community on licence. He must also sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.
Donaldson has been held in Maghaberry Prison since his conviction and was taken back there after sentencing. He is being held in the Moyola Unit, which is used for prisoners with health care needs, and does not share a cell. His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, has applied to appeal a jury finding that she committed acts relating to five charges, including four counts of aiding and abetting her husband’s offending. A judge will decide at a later date whether she receives a treatment order or an absolute discharge.
After the sentencing, the DUP said Donaldson deserved “every day of the lengthy prison sentence” and said its first thoughts were with the victims. Det Ch Insp Leah Crothers of the PSNI said the victims had “suffered immeasurably”, while Catherine Kierans of the Public Prosecution Service Serious Crime Unit said the case showed sexual abuse could be hidden behind a “facade of respectability”.
