Jeffrey Donaldson spotlight now includes a investigation that added new details about his conduct after Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was found guilty on Monday of 18 sex abuse charges, including one count of rape. The investigation said much of the conduct was not illegal, yet it described a double life that had drawn in people around him.
Former DUP MP Ian Paisley said a young woman approached him five years ago and told him, "Jeffrey Donaldson exploited me, that man used me and I want you to do everything in your power to make sure he is not the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party". Paisley said the woman did not want to make a formal complaint, and he told Edwin Poots.
Ian Paisley and 2021
Paisley said he later described the woman as a "victim" in a text during the DUP leadership contest in 2021 between Jeffrey Donaldson and Edwin Poots in. He also said, "This was deeply upsetting." Poots replied, "We observed at all times the wishes of the young woman."
The investigation said senior former police officers and politicians described Donaldson's behaviour as hypocritical and said it put him in danger of being compromised by political opponents. One incident involved a visit to a London sauna marketed as a meeting place for gay men the same year he described homosexuality as "sinful".
DUP leadership contest
The DUP said it had no knowledge of the issues raised and was shocked to learn of the alleged incidents highlighted. It also said it had not received any complaints internally or externally about inappropriate or criminal behaviour by Jeffrey Donaldson. NI Spotlight contacted Donaldson about allegations in its programme, but he did not respond.
The sequence leaves the party with two separate records to reckon with: Paisley's account of a warning raised five years ago, and the DUP's statement that no complaints reached it. The article does not show any party finding, but it does show that allegations were circulating before and during the 2021 contest, while the criminal case ended on Monday with 18 convictions and one count of rape.
