It took extraordinary determination and courage for two women – Complainant A and Complainant B – first of all to go to the PSNI and then, after a wait of more than two years, to enter the witness box at Newry Crown Court and make the sexual abuse allegations against Jeffrey Donaldson and related allegations against his wife Eleanor. After a four-week trial, the seven men and five women on the jury had a choice to make: to accept the evidence of the two complainants or to believe Donaldson when he accused them of lying. They believed the women.From his early days in unionism, to his opposition to the Belfast Agreement, his move to the DUP and subsequent support for Brexit, Donaldson was a power broker in Northern Ireland and Westminster politics for more than 30 years. He presented himself as someone who espoused strong Christian values. The crimes of which he has been found guilty are heinous. 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.Eleanor Donaldson, who was judged unfit to stand trial on medical grounds, faced a trial of the facts, meaning she could not be convicted. The jury nonetheless found on four charges that she had aided and abetted her husband and on a fifth charge that she was guilty of cruelty to children.The children were aged about seven to 13 over the periods when the abuse took place. Donaldson now is a convicted paedophile. Donaldson’s vertiginous fall from grace shocked and unsettled many people. His political career ended on the day of his arrest two years ago; this week, former colleagues and political opponents have been united in disgust and horror at his crimes. Great credit is due to the Police Service of Northern Ireland and to all those who helped the woman at the centre of the case. They were facing a defendant used to the cut and thrust of hardline politics who in his evidence and under cross-examination staunchly held to his position that the women were lying. But in their evidence and under stern cross-examination they told their harrowing story of abuse with strength, credibility and conviction and convinced the jury of the pain they had endured. Their resolve may encourage other victims of sex abuse to come forward to the police.Judge Paul Ramsey refused bail and made clear that Donaldson’s prison sentence when delivered later – probably in early Autumn – will be a “lengthy” one. “Take Mr Donaldson down,” the judge pronounced after the jury came to its unanimous verdict, closing a case that vindicated the two women and demonstrated that no one is above the law.