Eleanor Donaldson given supervision order and placed on sex offenders' register

A judge at Newry Crown Court imposed a three-year supervision and treatment order on Eleanor Donaldson, 60, and placed her on the sex offenders register for five years after a jury found she had committed four counts of aiding and abetting her husband's offending and one count of child cruelty. The court heard that three of the aiding and abetting counts related to the rape of a primary school child, with prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh stating that Donaldson had directed the victim, known as Complainant B, into the room where she knew serious sexual offending would occur. Both victims, now adults, were present in court for the hearing.

Eleanor Donaldson was deemed medically unfit to stand trial and instead faced a trial of the facts, a non-criminal process where a jury determines whether the accused did the acts alleged but cannot return a guilty verdict. The jury unanimously agreed she had done the acts charged. She appeared briefly via video-link for the two-minute hearing on Friday, keeping her eyes closed and head bowed as Judge Paul Ramsey explained the order, nodding and saying "yes" when asked if she understood.

The supervision and treatment order places her under the supervision of a social worker from the Craigavon Community Mental Health Team, requiring her to attend appointments, undergo treatment, and allow home visits. Judge Ramsey said expert medical evidence from two clinicians made the order "inevitable" as the most appropriate disposal. Defence barrister Ian Turkington KC said the medical evidence regarding his client "was clear," and the judge noted it was "unchallenged."

Jeffrey Donaldson, 63, was convicted in June of 18 sex offences, including one count of rape, 13 counts of indecent assault on a female, and four counts of gross indecency with or towards a child, committed against two women when they were children between 1985 and 2008. He was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison but will serve seven and a half years due to automatic 50 per cent remission, with the remainder on licence. He is appealing his conviction.

Bronagh Muldoon, assistant director for the NSPCC in Northern Ireland, said it was "right and important" that Eleanor Donaldson's role in her husband's offending was recognised in court, praising the victims' "incredible bravery" in coming forward. Following the case, it was announced that Sir John Gillen, a senior judge, will review the current law around trial of facts in Northern Ireland, examining the law and procedures on unfitness to plead.