Jeffrey Donaldson, whose trial for sexual offences begins in Newry on Tuesday, was at the height of his political career when he was arrested in March 2024. The leader of Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party, the DUP, he had just led it back into government at Stormont after a walkout over post-Brexit trading arrangements left the Northern powersharing institutions in suspension for two years. Northern Ireland’s longest-serving sitting MP – Donaldson had represented Lagan Valley since 1997 – he won his first election in 1985, aged only 22, and was a year away from marking 40 years as an elected representative. The now 63-year-old from Kilkeel, Co Down, became politically aware at a young age – his cousin, Samuel Donaldson, was one of the first policemen killed in the Troubles – and joined the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Orange Order. His roles included a spell as election agent for the MP Enoch Powell in the mid-1980s before becoming an MP himself in 1997. Donaldson fell out with the then UUP leader, David Trimble, during the negotiations leading to the 1998 Belfast Agreement over police reforms and IRA decommissioning, and subsequently led a dramatic walkout from peace talks. His defection to the DUP six years later was a defining moment for political unionism, which helped broaden the support base of the late Ian Paisley’s firebrand, fundamentalist party. He became DUP leader in June 2021 after Edwin Poots – who had beaten him to the leadership only three weeks previously – resigned. Donaldson 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. His political skill in manoeuvring his party back into government in January 2024, despite significant opposition from within his own party and from the unionist grass-roots, won him widespread regard, with an impassioned address in the House of Commons regarded by many as the speech of his life. Donaldson was knighted in Queen Elizabeth’s birthday honours list in 2016 and, until his arrest, was seen as a likely candidate for eventual appointment to the House of Lords. Donaldson stood down as DUP leader and was suspended from the party after his arrest in March 2024. He did not stand for re-election in the UK general election that July and was replaced as the MP for Lagan Valley by the Alliance Party’s Sorcha Eastwood.