The jury in Jeffrey Donaldson's trial for historical sex offences began deliberations on 17 June 2026, following the judge's summation of a case that has overshadowed Northern Irish unionism since the charges first became public.

Donaldson, who led the Democratic Unionist Party from 2021 until his resignation in March 2024, faces 18 charges in total, including one count of rape. He entered a not guilty plea to all 18 counts at Belfast Crown Court on 10 September 2024, per Reuters. The charges are historical in nature, meaning the alleged conduct predates his tenure as DUP leader by some years.

The judge moved to sum up proceedings on 18 June 2026, according to reporting from Yahoo News, setting the stage for the jury to return its verdict. No timeline for a verdict has been indicated publicly.

The trial carries exceptional political weight for Northern Ireland. Donaldson was one of the most senior figures in unionism for over two decades — a Westminster MP for Lagan Valley, a participant in the negotiations that shaped the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and a central actor in the DUP's protracted negotiations with successive UK governments over the Windsor Framework and its predecessor arrangements. His arrest and subsequent resignation from the DUP leadership in March 2024, announced on the same day as the charges were made public, were events without modern precedent in the party's history.

The DUP moved quickly after his resignation, appointing Gavin Robinson as interim leader before the party settled on a longer-term arrangement. The episode landed at a moment of acute institutional fragility for Stormont — the Northern Ireland Assembly, which had only recently been restored following a two-year DUP boycott over post-Brexit trading arrangements. For a party already navigating internal divisions over the Windsor Framework, the collapse of Donaldson's leadership added a further layer of instability at a critical juncture.

Criminal proceedings in Northern Ireland follow the same broad framework as the rest of the United Kingdom, but the jurisdiction retains its own court structure and prosecutorial arrangements through the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland. The case is being heard before a jury, and the presumption of innocence applies in full — the charges have not been tested to a verdict.

The breadth of the indictment — 18 counts, spanning what prosecutors describe as historical offending — means that deliberations are unlikely to be brief. Juries in complex multi-count cases of this kind are routinely directed to consider each charge separately, a process that can extend over several days. The judge's summation on 18 June would have walked jurors through the legal tests applicable to each count, including the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt.

For Westminster watchers, the trial's conclusion — whenever it comes — will matter beyond the immediate legal outcome. Donaldson's long career intersected with some of the most sensitive negotiations in the recent history of the Union: the St Andrews Agreement, the Stormont House Agreement, and the DUP's confidence-and-supply arrangement with Theresa May's government between 2017 and 2019. None of that institutional history is on trial. The charges relate to personal conduct. But the verdict will inevitably prompt renewed scrutiny of the period during which the allegations are said to have occurred and the structures — party and parliamentary — within which he operated.

The DUP, now attempting to stabilise its position ahead of any future Assembly or Westminster election cycle, will be watching the outcome closely. A verdict of any kind closes one chapter. What comes after — for the party, for unionism more broadly, and for Northern Ireland's still-fragile political institutions — is a separate question entirely.