Lady Eleanor Donaldson was declared unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds at Newry Crown Court on Wednesday, clearing the way for a trial of facts in the case against her. Judge Paul Ramsey reached the decision after hearing medical evidence, and said she cannot be tried because of serious ill-health.
The ruling means Lady Donaldson, 60, will not face a conventional criminal trial on the five charges she denies, which relate to aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending. Instead, the court will examine whether the alleged conduct happened at all. A jury in a trial of facts cannot convict, but it can decide whether the offences were committed, and the person can be acquitted.
That hearing is now central to how the wider case will unfold. Prosecutors have proposed that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, 63, face a standard trial opening next Tuesday while his wife’s trial of facts runs at the same time. The judge is due to rule on Thursday whether that should happen or whether the trial of facts should be heard separately at a different time.
The charges against Sir Jeffrey Donaldson span 18 alleged offences, including one count of rape and allegations of indecent assault and gross indecency said to have taken place between 1985 and 2008 involving two alleged victims. He and Lady Donaldson deny the combined 23 sex abuse charges.
The process being used in Lady Donaldson’s case is set out under Article 49A of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, and is reserved for defendants who cannot be tried because of serious ill-health. Dr Christine Kennedy told the court Lady Donaldson is in no fit state to instruct her lawyers, follow proceedings or give evidence.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, is due to face a separate criminal trial if the schedule proposed by prosecutors is accepted. Thursday’s ruling will determine whether the two cases proceed side by side or are split, a decision that will shape the court’s handling of one of the most closely watched proceedings in Northern Ireland this year.
