Jeffrey Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to sex offences after allegations triggered his resignation as the leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) earlier this year.
Donaldson, 61, appeared at Newry crown court on Tuesday and replied “not guilty” to all the 18 charges – one of rape, four of gross indecency and 13 of indecent assault – that span 1985 to 2008.
His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 58, appeared with him in the dock at the brief arraignment hearing and pleaded not guilty to three charges of aiding and abetting in connection with her husband’s alleged offences. Her lawyers applied to have two other charges against her withdrawn.
A trial date was set for 24 March next year; it is to last two weeks.
The Donaldsons were released on continuing bail. Police kept a significant presence outside the courthouse for the arrival and departure of the defendants. There are two alleged victims.
Judge Ramsey said he would hold a review hearing on 25 October, which the defendants were not obliged to attend. The Donaldsons, who married in 1987, are represented by different legal firms.
Police arrested the couple at their County Down home on 28 March 2024 and questioned them separately at a police station. Prosecutors laid charges the same day, precipitating a political earthquake in Northern Ireland.
Donaldson subsequently resigned as leader of the DUP, which he had led since 2021, and stepped down as the MP for Lagan Valley in the general election in July. Gavin Robinson, the party’s MP for East Belfast, took over as leader.
Weeks before his arrest, Donaldson had accepted a Downing Street deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements and led the DUP back into Stormont after a two-year boycott of the power-sharing institutions.
The former DUP leader was born into a Presbyterian family in the fishing village of Kilkeel and became a full-time political activist at 18, serving apprenticeships with Enoch Powell and James Molyneaux of the Ulster Unionist party before defecting to the DUP in 2003. He was knighted for political services in 2016.
