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https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/0519/1574138-donaldson-trial-date/

Updated / Tuesday, 19 May 2026 13:05

By Vincent Kearney Northern Editor

 

The trial of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson and his wife on historical sexual offences is set to go ahead as scheduled next week, a court hearing has been told.

The couple were arrested and charged more than two years ago.

Following a short hearing at Newry Magistrates' Court, Judge Paul Ramsey said he plans to begin the process of selecting a jury for the trial next Tuesday.

There will be a further hearing tomorrow to discuss a further medical report on Ms Donaldson and other legal issues.

Barristers for the Public Prosecution Service and the two defendants said they were all ready to proceed to trial next week.

Mr Donaldson, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges including one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 charges of indecent assault.

Eleanor Donaldson, 59, has pleaded not guilty to five charges including aiding and abetting her husband.

The 23 charges relate to offences allegedly committed against two plaintiffs between 1985 and 2008.

The couple were not required to be in court for today's hearing and are not required to attend tomorrow’s hearing.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/final-nail-in-the-coffin-lcc-ready-to-dump-chairman-over-character-reference-for-paedophile/a/150640040.html

Ciaran Barnes

Sunday Life News Manager

3 May 2026 5:27 PM

The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) is “finished” as an organisation following its chairman’s public appeal for clemency for a convicted paedophile.

David Campbell, the face of the pressure group that represents the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando paramilitary gangs, made his controversial comments in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph on Friday.

This was after his old Ulster Unionist Party colleague and former teacher William Lloyd-Lavery was jailed for two years for sexually abusing four schoolgirls in the 1970s.

Campbell said he did not regret providing the 77-year-old pervert with a court character reference which “was to ask the judge, if possible, to show clemency in light of his health”.

The LCC chair condemned Lloyd-Lavery’s crimes, but added that the “scale of the offences weren’t dramatically huge”, and “they were also 50 years ago, which I know a lot of people think is irrelevant, but he’s maintained, as has his entire family (his innocence)”.

After Campbell’s comments were reported, LCC members moved to oust him as chairman.

A series of phone calls that morning between stunned loyalists led to the unanimous decision to force him out.

LCC member Jim ‘Bimbo’ Wilson, who represents the Red Hand Commando, was tight-lipped on Campbell’s future when quizzed by Sunday Life.

“He’s a nice man,” was all the loyalist ex-prisoner would say of the under-pressure LCC chairman.

However, other LCC members were more talkative, and told Sunday Life Campbell’s comments were “the final nail in the coffin” for the umbrella group.

One said: “Several phone calls were made between LCC members on Friday morning when Campbell’s comments were published in the Belfast Telegraph.

“Honestly, all the conversations and group messages were the same. There was a collective disbelief, and he has to go — no ifs, no buts.”

LCC insiders said Campbell’s position as chairman was already on a “shaky peg” because of his support for UVF boss Winkie Irvine, who is considered a divisive figure and for whom he also provided a court character reference.

Irvine, who sat on the LCC, is serving a two-and-a-half year prison term for possessing UVF guns.

Campbell said in his court character reference for Irvine: “I do not believe that he had any malicious intent, and I do not believe it is in the public interest to place him in prison.”

Our LCC source added: “Campbell was also too close to Jonathan Powell for our liking.”

Jonathan Powell, who founded the LCC in 2015, helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement and was a former chief of staff to Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Loyalists predicted the LCC would limp on but added that without a chairman to replace Campbell, it would quietly fall apart.

“The LCC barely meets these days, and there has always been cracks in it because it’s made up of different organisations who see different ways forward,” said another source.

“But what everyone is agreed on is that David Campbell cannot continue as chairman after those comments about that paedophile teacher.

“The last thing loyalists need is to be part of a group fronted by a man who wrote to a judge asking him to go easy on a pervert who abused schoolgirls, even if it was for health reasons.”

In his Belfast Telegraph interview, Campbell, who was an adviser to former Ulster Unionist First Minister David Trimble, also questioned the actions of some of Lloyd-Lavery’s victims’ parents in their dealings with the school over their children’s concerns.

A court heard how the paedophile “hunted” young girls like “prey”, and in one sinister incident, he sexually abused a victim in a stationery cupboard, pinning her down while she was “frozen in horror”.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/pallets-now-piling-up-at-belfast-asbestos-bonfire-site-after-gate-mysteriously-removed/a/147133141.html

Gates removed at contaminated area as loyalists vow ‘this year we’re going bigger’

Andrew Madden

City Reporter 28 Apr 2026 6:00 AM

Bonfire material is gathering on land in south Belfast that is contaminated with asbestos because the gate to the site has been removed.

Organisers of the bonfire are now openly advertising for the public to dump material on the land, which is privately owned, directing them to the gateless opening.

In a defiant message at the weekend, the Village bonfire South Belfast Facebook page said: “This year we’re going bigger”.

The Meridi Street site in the Village area — which is close to a primary school and an electricity substation that serves the City and Royal Victoria hospitals — has been the source of controversy since a bonfire was built and set alight on the land last summer on the Eleventh Night.

In the run-up to the pyre being torched, concerns were raised over the presence of potentially deadly asbestos at the site, which is owned by Armagh-registered company Boron Developments.

In the days before the Eleventh Night, Belfast City Council agreed to have contractors move in to remove the bonfire.

However, these plans were aborted when the PSNI said it would not assist.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) attempted to mitigate the danger by removing around 20kg of asbestos from the land and placing tarpaulins, fire blankets and quarry dust over a pile of the material.

The bonfire was then lit and the next month it emerged that a criminal investigation into the presence of asbestos on the site had been launched.

Boron Developments eventually began work to clear the ite, which was ostensibly completed on November 21 last year. However, a subsequent inspection revealed asbestos fragments were still present.

Now bonfire builders have again been gaining access to the site — which is supposed to have been secured — and collected pallets and other material there ahead of the Eleventh Night, in less than three months’ time.

The Village bonfire Facebook page has appealed to people to bring wood, beds, doors, sofas, wardrobes and pallets to the site, specifically through the Maldon Street entrance.

Pictures from the Maldon Street entrance reveal organisers have been able to easily gain access as the gates that were once present have been removed, leaving an opening wide enough even for vehicles to pass through.

It is unclear exactly when or who removed the gates.

Distinctive red and blue pallets have also been gathered at Meridi Street.

Due to their colour, the blue pallets can be identified as those used by global pallet company Chep, which only hired them out — they are never sold — while the red pallets are owned by French firm La Palette Rouge.

Chep said it is aware its pallets are used each year for bonfires in Northern Ireland and it does not condone their use for these purposes. The company also appealed to bonfire organisers not to use its pallets, which remain its legal property.

Alliance councillor Emmet McDonough Brown urged those responsible for organising the bonfire to stop.

“We remain deeply concerned about the welfare of those who could be exposed to asbestos at this bonfire site and have been working to minimise the danger and encourage remediation by the landowner,” he said.

“The arrival of private property — in the form of pallets owned by third parties — and the call for materials indicates a deterioration of the position.

“I urge unionist politicians to show leadership and discourage participation and attendance at this particular bonfire this year. They know it is not safe, and they owe our community the courage to say so publicly. I urge those responsible to cease.”

The PSNI said it “works alongside stakeholders and other agencies in relation to bonfires and associated community or public safety concerns”.

A spokesperson added: “This multi-agency approach is particularly important in the lead up to periods of increased demand.

“This work may include reports of pallet theft. As with all types of theft reports, police will take steps with stakeholders, where appropriate, to prevent crime and deter offending.”

Police urged anyone with any information to contact them.

When asbestos fragments were detected on the land in February, the NIEA said the material there “currently presents minimal risk” within the secure site, but added: “These risks increase where members of the public trespass onto this privately owned land.”

Earlier this month, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs — of which the NIEA is a part — said: “Minister Muir would again urge local elected representatives to provide the leadership needed to ensure everyone obeys the law and heeds the warnings issued to keep people off the site.

“Remediation and ongoing site security remain the responsibility of the landowner. NIEA has engaged the landowner throughout the remediation process including on the issues of access to the site and signage.”

Boron Developments has been contacted for comment.