From Parliament to prison - the fall of Jeffrey Donaldson

Jeffrey Donaldson's life in politics: From DUP leader to convicted child sex abuser 10 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Jayne McCormack Political correspondent, BBC News NI PA Media Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's political career is a tale of two Good Fridays – the first a pivotal turning point, the second a shocking end. It was in 1998, the day the peace deal - the Good Friday Agreement - was signed, bringing an end to decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, that he walked out of talks over the decision of his Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) to support it. The dramatic move was uncharacteristic in a political life that usually avoided drama. But it did set him on a path that would see him go from being a thorn in the side of the UUP leadership, to becoming a party leader himself - but for the rival Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) after his defection to them in 2003. Fast forward 26 years later, Good Friday 2024, and DUP leader Donaldson is charged with sexual abuse. He resigns as leader and then has his membership suspended by the party. On Monday, Donaldson was found guilty of all 18 sex abuse charges he faced, including rape. A few short weeks before being arrested and charged, he had been in Washington DC for St Patrick's Day celebrations, lauded as the man of the moment after getting his party to return to power-sharing government at Stormont. It was deemed the pinnacle of his decades-long career. Just weeks later, that career lay in tatters. Donaldson's beginnings Getty Images UUP leader David Trimble and Jeffrey Donaldson had a tempestuous relationship His time in politics may have ended in the DUP, but it began in 1985 when he was elected for the UUP to represent the South Down constituency in the 1980s iteration of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Before his election, he had worked for South Down MP Enoch Powell who had joined the Ulster Unionists from the Conservatives in the 1970s. In 1997, when his boss James Molyneaux retired as the Lagan Valley MP, Donaldson retained the seat comfortably for the UUP. But his unhappiness with the party became obvious as political negotiations at Stormont moved towards the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. He became one of the UUP's biggest critics of the deal over issues like the IRA's decommissioning of weapons, warning his leader David Trimble against supporting it. Even after the agreement, and the first power-sharing government was formed in its wake, he continued to pose problems for the party and supported failed bids by others to oust Trimble from office. In 2003, he quit and defected to the DUP. Later that same year, the DUP replaced the UUP as the biggest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly. It has remained the biggest party in unionism ever since. Donaldson quickly rose through the DUP's ranks, no longer a politician of protest but a key figure in the party's chain of command, developing a reputation as a strong media performer and policymaker. Former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey