It took the jury 10 hours to make up their minds but only 10 minutes to deliver their verdict. In the dock at Newry crown court yesterday on Monday afternoon, Jeffrey Donaldson stood as the clerk read each of the 18 counts, beginning with the most serious, that of the rape of a child. “Guilty,” the foreman replied. “Guilty,” he repeated, after every one of the charges. “Guilty.” Their verdict was unanimous. The former DUP leader showed no emotion as he listened to the judgment being delivered, just as he showed no emotion throughout his month-long trial for child sex offences. In 2024, two women told police Donaldson had abused them as children from the ages of about seven to 13. On Monday he was convicted of rape, 13 counts of indecent assault on a female and four counts of gross indecency with or towards a child over a more than 20-year period, from 1985 to 2008. His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, who was ruled medically unfit to stand trial, was found in a trial of the facts to have aided and abetted rape and indecent assault. Donaldson was placed on the sex offenders’ register and will be sentenced in September. Judge Paul Ramsey ordered he be remanded in custody given the “inevitability of a custodial sentence, and a long sentence at that”. Donaldson’s only reaction was a nod. “Take Mr Donaldson down,” the judge said. [ Former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson found guilty of all 18 child sex abuse chargesOpens in new window ]The disgraced politician was taken to the cells below the courthouse and then to Maghaberry prison, where he spent his first night in jail. Outside the courthouse, reporters, photographers and members of the public waited for Donaldson as they have so many times in his 40 years in politics; this time, they watched him departing in a prison van. Donaldson’s is an unparalleled downfall; an ignominious end to a political career in which he became the leader of the largest unionist party; Northern Ireland’s longest-standing MP; and so high-profile he was often known not as Donaldson, but as “Jeffrey”.The week before his arrest in 2024 he was in Washington for St Patrick’s Day, on a trip seen almost as a victory lap after he struck a deal with the Westminster government which brought the DUP back into Stormont and ended its two-year boycott of the Northern political institutions. On Monday, Donaldson’s successor, Gavin Robinson, sought to distance the party from its former leader’s crimes. He said he and his colleagues had been as “shocked” as the wider public at his arrest and condemned his actions as “heinous and despicable”, as “predatory and repugnant”, as “evil”. It was “clear beyond doubt that he abused various positions of power over many years since 1985 and has covered up his vile and manipulative behaviour,” Robinson said. Calling for Donaldson to face “the full force of the law”, he said he was “guilty of abusing and betraying the trust placed in him” by many, including colleagues in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) which he left in 2003, and the public. There were calls on Monday night for Donaldson – who has already lost his seat as an MP and no longer holds political office or party membership – to be stripped of the knighthood he was awarded by Queen Elizabeth in 2016. It is expected he will lose the honour as forfeiture is automatically considered following a conviction for a sexual offence, though this must be approved by King Charles. The leaders of the North’s main political parties said Donaldson’s conviction demonstrated nobody was above the law and sent their support to all those who have suffered from sexual abuse, including Donaldson’s two victims. Robinson said the DUP’s thoughts were “first and foremost with those innocent victims ... today we stand with the victims of his abuse and we salute their bravery and courage for speaking out”.Sinn Féin vice-president and Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, praised their “immense courage” and “their remarkable resilience and strength in securing justice for the heinous criminal acts that were inflicted upon them”.Joanne Barnes of the charity Nexus, which supports the survivors of sexual abuse, said Donaldson’s conviction was “an important step towards justice and accountability” and it was “vital” it helped build “greater victim confidence in coming forward”.