Current and ex-DUP members knew of allegations about Jeffrey Donaldson, party says

Former and current members of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) knew of allegations about the former leader Jeffrey Donaldson but did not share them, the party has said. Information about Donaldson was not reported through “appropriate channels” and left the party unable to formally respond, the DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, said on Monday. The admission came as new claims about Donaldson’s conduct engulfed the party in crisis a week after he was convicted of sexual abuse against children in a case that shocked Northern Ireland. It is alleged that the former Lagan Valley MP sexually pestered women, visited a gay sauna while denouncing homosexuality and got drunk on foreign trips – and vomited over the mayor of Beijing – while professing to be a teetotaller. The claims came after a jury at Newry crown court on 22 June unanimously found the 63-year-old guilty of 18 sexual offences, including one count of rape, against two women when they were children. He is to be sentenced in September. The Belfast Telegraph reported that he is expected to appeal. The DUP joined other parties in welcoming the verdict and stressed that it had suspended Donaldson when he was first charged in 2024. However its hopes of containing the political damage have dissolved amid a clamour over what the party knew – and when – about other misconduct by Donaldson. …