DUP seeks to distance party from ‘wicked deceiver’ Jeffrey Donaldson

The Democratic Unionist party has denounced Jeffrey Donaldson as a “wicked deceiver” who led a “double and duplicitous life” a day after its former leader was convicted of child sexual offences.Leaders at the Stormont assembly sought to distance the DUP from Donaldson and described him as a manipulator who had hoodwinked Northern Ireland and hid his crimes behind a facade of respectability and Christian faith.“Jeffrey Donaldson abused positions of trust and power over many years while concealing vile and manipulative behaviour,” the DUP deputy leader, Michelle McIlveen, told the assembly on Tuesday. “It is now clear that Jeffrey Donaldson led a double and duplicitous life.”Jonathan Buckley, a DUP assembly member, said the party had been led by an “evil sexual predator”, a “fraudulent monster” and a “wicked deceiver” who concealed his true nature.The sincerity of revulsion is not in question but analysts noted that the DUP was facing a battle to dissociate itself from Donaldson before local and assembly elections next year.The denunciations came as the former Lagan Valley MP spent his first full day at Maghaberry, a high-security prison in county Antrim. There is speculation he may be moved to a prison in Great Britain, where he would have a lower profile among prisoners.After a four-week trial, a jury at Newry crown court on Monday convicted the 63-year-old of 18 offences including rape, indecent assault and gross indecency against two victims, who were children at the time of the abuse more than 30 years ago. Donaldson had denied the charges and accused the victims of lying. The trial judge, Paul Ramsey, said a “lengthy” prison sentence was inevitable.The DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, speaks to the media in Belfast after Jeffrey Donaldson’s conviction, as the deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly (right), listens. Photograph: Niall Carson/Liam McBurney/PAThe jury found that Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor, 60, aided and abetted his offending. Deemed unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds, she faced a trial of the facts, which tests the evidence but does not result in a criminal conviction.The verdict shattered what was left of the reputation of Donaldson, a polished media performer who had dominated unionism in Northern Ireland and Westminster and helped to broker the Windsor framework.There have been widespread calls to strip him of his knighthood, awarded in 2016 for services to politics.The Orange Order, a loyalist organisation that counted Donaldson as a prominent member, said it terminated the membership of anyone convicted of a serious criminal offence.Donaldson’s arrest in March 2024 caused a political earthquake and a scramble by the DUP to sever ties. It suspended him and scrubbed his name and image from the party website.Donaldson’s conviction dominated headlines on both sides of the Irish border and prompted tributes to the courage of the two victims for coming forward.The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said Donaldson compounded “horrific” crimes by denying them and obliging his victims to testify at the trial. “That man lived a lie all his life and he did great evil and great damage,” he said.Edwin Poots, a former DUP leader who is now speaker of the Stormont assembly, said Donaldson was a serial deceiver. “I found Donaldson out on lies too many times over many years, though I could never have imagined he could have been so depraved.”