Eleanor Donaldson’s bid to have two charges withdrawn ‘should not delay trial’
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An application to dismiss two charges facing Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s wife in the historical sex offences case involving them both should not delay their trial, a judge has said. During a brief review hearing at Newry Crown Court, judge Paul Ramsey said he expected the trial to proceed at the end of March.
Former DUP leader Donaldson, 62, has pleaded not guilty to 18 offences. The historical charges include one count of rape as well as allegations of indecent assault and gross indecency. His wife Lady Eleanor Donaldson, 58, of Dublinhill Road, Dromore, faces charges of aiding and abetting in connection with the alleged offences facing her husband.
She has entered not guilty pleas to three charges ahead of the March trial but her defence team has applied to have two other charges against her withdrawn. It had originally been expected that the judge would hear submissions in the no bill application to dismiss the two charges on Tuesday.
However, he said that was not possible and instead listed a hearing for January. Judge Ramsey told the court: “This is the application for no bill in respect of two of the counts on the indictment. “We are not proceeding with that today, for technical reasons we can’t proceed with that so we are going to fix a date for the hearing of that.”.
The judge said he would hear oral arguments on January 23, having already received written arguments on the application from both the defence and prosecution. He said: “Our trial is the end of March. I take it it won’t affect the trial, we can get this matter dealt with.”.
