Pedophile rapist returns British knighthood after conviction

Northern Ireland veteran politician Jeffrey Donaldson has said he will give up his knighthood and seat on the UK Privy Council after being convicted of rape and child abuse.

On Monday, a jury found the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) guilty of 18 counts of sexual abuse, including one count of rape, against two girls.

The offenses were reportedly committed between 1985 and 2008, when both victims were children of primary school age. He started to abuse the older of the two when she was around 7 or 8 years old and continued to do so until she was about 12 or 13.

While Jeffrey Donaldson has two daughters, their exact ages are not a matter of public record and the victims are only identified in court as Complainant A and Complainant B. The politician was born in 1962 and married his wife Eleanor in 1987, after the abuses reportedly began.

Presiding Judge Paul Ramsey told Donaldson that he was facing a lengthy prison sentence, according to the BBC. His wife was found guilty of aiding her husband’s abuse, but the judge ruled that she was unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds. Donaldson, who pleaded not guilty, is due to be sentenced on September 25.

Donaldson resigned as leader of the DUP – a party that advocates maintaining the union with Great Britain – after his arrest in 2024. On Wednesday, his lawyer, John McBurney, said Donaldson had submitted a request to the government to forfeit his knighthood and his seat on the Privy Council, which advises the British monarch.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the party had been “shocked” by the evidence presented during the trial. “No one, regardless of status or position, can ever be above the law and Jeffrey Donaldson is no exception,” he said.

The party’s deputy leader, Michelle McIlveen, said on Tuesday that Donaldson had “led a double and duplicitous life.”

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