The sentencing of Jeffrey Donaldson on Thursday for child sex offences, including rape, confirmed that the former DUP leader is by any standards a monster who inflicted an appalling and prolonged ordeal on his young victims.
Judge Paul Ramsey set out the position graphically at Newry Crown Court when he jailed Donaldson for 15 years, and said his behaviour had led him to a “catastrophic descent into disgrace”.
A wide range of issues emerged from the case, some judicial but others plainly political, which will all have to be given serious and comprehensive consideration in the days ahead.
However, the priority must be providing support for and paying tribute to the two courageous and determined women who ensured Donaldson’s conviction by providing compelling evidence against him.
The details established during the trial were harrowing in every respect, before the defendant, who is seeking an appeal against the verdicts, was convicted of 18 charges, including one count of rape, 13 of indecent assault and four of gross indecency.
They covered more than two decades from 1985 to 2008, beginning when the victims were of primary school age, and Judge Ramsey said he had been left in no doubt about the “permanent mark” the abuse had left on them.
The women, who are entitled to lifetime anonymity, displayed remarkable bravery from the period when they first reported Donaldson’s offences to the police, right up to yesterday, when they sat just feet away as he was informed of the punishment he would face.
In their victim impact statements, Complainant A said she wished she had been allowed to grow up like other children instead of feeling “ashamed and dirty”, while Complainant B said her experience had affected “every day and every relationship” she had ever had.
Judge Ramsey said tellingly of Donaldson: “There has not been and there will not be a word of apology or shame to offer his victims even a crumb of comfort.”
It is shocking rather than surprising that, throughout the criminal process, he persistently denied his offending, firstly to detectives, then during his trial and eventually to experts carrying out pre-sentencing probation reports.
In all the circumstances, it is essential that the review to be carried out by the child protection specialist Jim Gamble into all aspects of Donaldson’s time in the DUP, including the three years when he was party leader up until his arrest in 2024, is published both in full and as swiftly as possible.
It is vital that early and definitive clarification is offered over Donaldson’s remission criteria after reports that he could entirely unacceptably walk free from prison little more than seven years from now.
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