Former DUP leader Donaldson to renounce knighthood and Privy Council membership

By Rebecca Black, Press Association

Former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has moved to renounce and forfeit his knighthood and membership of the Privy Council.

It comes after calls from a number of political leaders for Donaldson to be stripped of the titles after he was convicted of 18 sexual offences.

Current DUP leader Gavin Robinson and Ulster Unionist leader Jon Burrows are among those who called for Donaldson’s knighthood and membership of the Privy Council to be removed.

On Monday, a jury of seven men and five women at Newry Crown Court unanimously found Donaldson, 63, guilty of 18 sexual offences, including one count of rape, against two women when they were children.

The offences were committed between 1985 and 2008.

The two victims gave evidence against him during the trial, during which Donaldson had denied the offences.

Judge Paul Ramsey told the former political leader that he can expect a “lengthy” prison term when he is sentenced.

Donaldson’s solicitor John McBurney said on Wednesday that his client has signed a letter to renounce his knighthood.

He said Donaldson had also signed a letter to resign from the Privy Council, a life appointment afforded to senior politicians.

In a statement he said: “I have this afternoon issued a letter signed by Jeffrey Donaldson to the Cabinet Office indicating his request to renounce and forfeit his knighthood.

“I have also this afternoon issued a letter signed by Jeffrey Donaldson to the Privy Council office tendering his resignation from the Privy Council with immediate effect.”

Earlier, Donaldson’s trial was described as having “struck a real blow” for sexual offence victims.

Former appeal court judge John Gillen paid tribute to the “immense courage” of the victims in coming forward, adding he feels they “struck a real blow”.

Gillen John led a major review into how sexual offences are handled in the Northern Ireland courts system and made 250 recommendations in 2019.

He said around 86 per cent of them have either been implemented or are about to be, and described a “sea change” having been affected.

Some of the changes include the exclusion of the public from all serious sexual offence hearings; anonymity for defendants pre-charge; anonymity of complainants to continue after death; and an increase in the penalty for breach of anonymity.

Speaking on BBC Northern Ireland’s Radio Ulster on Wednesday, Gillen said the trial and conviction of Donaldson demonstrated some of the changes.

“We have had a culture here in Northern Ireland which hasn’t properly heard women and girls and children in the past, they have endured sorrows that cannot talk. Well I think this trial has struck a blow against that culture, and I think the process, the outcome, has all spoken to women and victims overall for the future,” he said.

“I think the trial shows that the changes that have come about have been monumental in the way that criminal trials of serious sexual offences are dealt with.

“There is much to be done still. I’m not saying it’s perfect, I’m not saying it’s other than a difficult time for victims to come forward, but changes have been made.”

Concerns were raised by the charity Nexus, which supports those affected by sexual abuse, around some of the questioning of the victims during the trial, and the “pushing of rape myths” which they argue can downplay the trauma suffered by victims.

Gillen said rape myths had been a “real impediment” to justice in the past.

“Myths such as victims must cry out if they’re really being raped, that victims must report to police right away, that handsome young men don’t commit these sexual offences and so on, these have been challenged by the court system and you will find that at the start of trials now in sexual offence cases, judges immediately tell the jury that they should be aware that victims of crime very often don’t react in the way that you might expect or think that you would expect,” he said.

“That is told to the jury at the outset and at the end of the trial when the judge is summing up.

“He or she makes it clear that, for example, it’s well-known that the trauma of these attacks is such that victims, particularly women, do not scream out, that they do not report these matters right away. It takes time for them to come to terms with the trauma of what has happened.”

In terms of concerns expressed specifically about some questioning in the Donaldson case, Gillen said he very much respects the views of Nexus.

“But it is right to say that an accused has to have his rights as well, and his counsel is entitled, on his instructions, to put forward these matters,” he said.

“But I make it absolutely clear, the judge at the start of the trial and the end of the trial will have immediately taken this aspect on, and also a judge will not allow this kind of cross-examination to go on interminably – counsel is allowed to put the question and then the answer is given.

“However, anyone who witnesses these trials will see now the sea change that has happened in the way that rape myths are dealt with. Still work to be done, but there has been a great change in how these myths are dealt with.”

He added: “There is a balance which has been established, and I think this trial shows it.”