Jeffrey Donaldson Jury Deliberates 18 Sex Abuse Charges After 4-Week Trial

Q: How will a jury decide criminal guilt for one spouse and 'facts' for another in the same trial?

The same jury can decide two different legal questions in one hearing because the law treats the spouses differently. For Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, this is an ordinary criminal trial. The jury must decide on each charge whether prosecutors have proved guilt beyond reasonable doubt. If they are sure, they can return a guilty verdict; if they are not sure, he must be acquitted. For Lady Eleanor Donaldson, the jury is not deciding criminal guilt because she has been found unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds. Under Northern Ireland’s Mental Health Order, the jury instead conducts a “trial of the facts.” That means it asks a narrower question: did she do the acts alleged, such as aiding or abetting? It is not deciding whether she is criminally responsible in the full sense, and any finding against her cannot produce a criminal conviction. In practice, the jury hears the overlapping evidence once, but applies different legal directions to each defendant. Judge Paul Ramsey will have told jurors to keep the cases separate in their minds: one requires a conventional verdict on guilt, the other a factual finding only. That distinction matters. A guilty verdict against Sir Jeffrey could lead to conviction and sentence. A finding that Lady Donaldson “did the acts” would not be a conviction, though it could lead to other court orders linked to her condition. She can also still be acquitted if the jury is not satisfied on the evidence.

3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Jun 18

A 12-member jury began deliberating at 13:20 BST after Judge Paul Ramsey spent about two hours summing up Jeffrey Donaldson's sex abuse trial at Newry Crown Court.
Donaldson, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges — including one count of rape, four of gross indecency and 13 of indecent assault — tied to allegations involving two women when they were children.
Ramsey told jurors they could convict only if the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, as the trial entered what he called its closing stages.
Lady Eleanor Donaldson, 60, denies five aiding-and-abetting charges but was ruled unfit for a conventional trial on mental health grounds; jurors are instead deciding facts in her absence, which cannot produce a criminal conviction.
The case stems from charges brought after the Donaldsons were arrested at their County Down home on 28 March 2024, over alleged offences said to have occurred between 1985 and 2008.