Mary Lou McDonald hopes Jeffrey Donaldson sentencing brings closure for victims

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she hopes the sentencing of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson over sex offences brings closure for his victims.

Speaking in Dublin, Ms McDonald said the focus now had to be on supporting the two women who were abused by the ex-MP.

Donaldson was given a 15-year sentence this week for 18 sex offences against two women when they were children.

The charges included one count of rape.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said she hoped Donaldson’s victims would find closure (Liam McBurney/PA)

PA Wire

Donaldson qualifies for an automatic 50% remission of his sentence, meaning he will spend seven-and-a-half years in prison.

Asked about the sentencing, Ms McDonald said: “I think our entire focus has to be on the welfare of the victims, for whom this has been, I’m sure, harrowing.

“To revisit all of that trauma and the wrongs that were done to them as very young children is very, very deeply traumatic and troubling and awful.

“I can only hope that now that justice has been done and has been seen to be done, and the sentence has been handed down, that they get some level of comfort, some level of closure.

“I hope they have all of the support that they need, and I hope they have all the love in the world.”

Judge Paul Ramsey told Newry Crown Court this week that Donaldson, 63, had shown no “regret, apology or shame” after he was convicted earlier this year.

The judge said Donaldson had “doubled down on his denials” since his conviction for the offences committed between 1985 and 2008.

The DUP has said its former party leader deserved every day of his sentence.