The trial of former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Jeffrey Donaldson for sexual offences is set to begin at Newry Crown Court on Tuesday. Jeffrey Donaldson (63), with an address in Dromore, Co Down, is accused of 18 offences – one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency with or towards a child, and 13 counts of indecent assault on a female, on dates between 1987 and 2008.A trial of the facts of his wife, Eleanor Donaldson, will run concurrently with Jeffrey Donaldson’s trial. Eleanor Donaldson (60) of the same address is charged with five counts of aiding and abetting in connection with charges against her husband. Both Eleanor and Jeffrey Donaldson deny the charges. [ Jeffrey Donaldson: consequential figure in four-decade political career before arrestOpens in new window ]Last week, Eleanor Donaldson was ruled unfit to stand trial on the basis of medical evidence before the court and will instead face a trial of the facts. Under mental health legislation in Northern Ireland, a trial of the facts takes the place of a criminal trial where a court has ruled the defendant is medically unfit to stand trial. The jury will determine, on the basis of evidence already given, whether the defendant committed the acts they are charged with.It cannot result in a conviction, but the jury can make a finding that the defendant committed the act, or it can acquit. The trial of both defendants was originally due to begin in March 2025, but was postponed twice due to a deterioration in the mental health of Eleanor Donaldson.During a pretrial hearing last week, the court was told the intention is to swear in a jury on Tuesday and for the prosecution to open its case on Wednesday. MP for Lagan Valley, Jeffrey Donaldson resigned as DUP leader and was suspended from the party after he was arrested and charged with sex offences in March 2024. A career politician, he won his first election in 1985, aged 22, and at the time of his arrest, he was Northern Ireland’s longest-serving sitting MP. From the fishing village of Kilkeel, Co Down, his cousin, Samuel Donaldson, was one of the first RUC officers killed in the Troubles. He initially joined the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), but fell out with its then leader, David Trimble, during the negotiations leading to the 1998 Belfast Agreement over police reforms and IRA decommissioning. He subsequently led a dramatic walkout from the peace talks and defected to the DUP six years later. Donaldson became party leader in June 2021 after Edwin Poots – who had beaten him to the leadership only three weeks previously – resigned. He presided over the party’s campaign against the Northern Ireland protocol – the post-Brexit trading deal opposed by unionists – which left the North without a devolved government from 2022-24. Weeks before his arrest, he led his party back into Stormont after a two-year boycott of the Northern Ireland powersharing institutions.Knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2016, Donaldson was widely regarded as a likely future candidate for the House of Lords. Following his arrest, then deputy leader Gavin Robinson, the MP for East Belfast, became interim DUP leader and was subsequently confirmed as party leader later that year. Jeffrey Donaldson did not stand in the UK general election in July 2024 and was replaced as the MP for Lagan Valley by the Alliance Party’s Sorcha Eastwood.