‘A sinful nature’: how Jeffrey Donaldson was unmasked as a sexual predator

Former DUP leader led a double life championing conservative values while inflicting sexual harm on two schoolgirls

While Joe Biden feted Jeffrey Donaldson at the White House during St Patrick’s Day celebrations in March 2024 a handful of detectives back home in Northern Ireland were quietly completing the countdown to his unmasking.

Weeks earlier Donaldson had steered the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) back to power-sharing at Stormont, a political feat that rebooted the Good Friday agreement and imbued a statesmanlike aura to his triumphant visit to Washington.