Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots has insisted that he “would never have protected Jeffrey Donaldson in any circumstance”.
Sinn Féin has called on the Speaker to stand aside pending a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) investigation into claims of inappropriate behaviour by Donaldson.
Poots has faced pressure from several Stormont parties over his role in an incident where a woman raised concern about behaviour by former DUP leader Donaldson.
Sinn Féin chief whip Sinéad Ennis told MLAs that the incident raised “serious questions” over his role as Speaker.
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Donaldson was last week convicted of 18 sex offences, including one count of rape, relating to abuse of two women when they were children.
Subsequent media reports have raised questions about how much was known within the DUP about Donaldson’s wider conduct in the period before his 2024 arrest over sex abuse allegations.
BBC Spotlight has reported that some senior DUP figures were aware of another woman, who was not involved in the recent court case, who had raised concerns about Donaldson’s behaviour.
In the programme, former North Antrim MP Ian Paisley jnr said the woman did not want to make a formal complaint but he said he told Poots, who was then party leader and is now Stormont Speaker, about her concerns.
Questions have also been raised around whether there was an awareness that Donaldson was allegedly engaged in behaviour in his private life that, although legal, was at odds with positions he adopted publicly.
The DUP is commissioning an independent review into issues raised since Donaldson was convicted.
In the Assembly on Tuesday, SDLP Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole asked about standing orders for recall of MLAs over the summer recess to ask further questions about the fallout from the Donaldson conviction and to express confidence or otherwise in the Speaker or others.
Poots responded: “You know full well the rules.
“If anybody has any notion that I done anything to protect Jeffrey Donaldson, after all that he had done to me previously, they are living in some other world or other planet.
“I will be cleared of any of the accusations that have been made against me, by any individuals in this place or outside of it.
“Because I have done nothing wrong, I make that absolutely clear. I would never have protected Jeffrey Donaldson in any circumstance had he done wrong, but given what he done on me in particular previous to that, I definitely wouldn’t have.”
Earlier Ennis raised concerns about Poots’s position.
“Revelations over recent days that members of the DUP, including the Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots, had knowledge of the exploitation of a young woman by the now convicted paedophile Jeffrey Donaldson raises serious questions for the DUP,” she said.
“Even if we accept that there were no criminal or safeguarding issues, and that remains to be seen, there was clearly knowledge of inappropriate behaviour by Donaldson, which, according to the current DUP leader [Gavin Robinson], was not passed to the party officers.
“The result of this is that these issues were not raised or dealt with, even as the DUP elevated Donaldson to the leadership of the DUP, effectively Donaldson’s behaviour was ignored, and in terms of this Assembly, it raises serious questions for Edwin Poots as Assembly Speaker.
“This is at best a gross misjudgment by the Speaker, at worst it is a fundamental and disastrous moral failure.”
[ Jeffrey Donaldson’s downfall leaves the DUP battling a conspiracy theoryOpens in new window ]
Ennis told MLAs that a “dangerous paedophile went unchallenged”.
“Worse still, and despite clear and knowing red flags, he was elected leader of the DUP,” she said.
“On that basis, I am calling for the Speaker to now stand aside pending the full disclosure of all of the issues and any and all knowledge of them within the DUP about inappropriate behaviour before and during Donaldson’s time as DUP leader.”
On Monday, current DUP leader Gavin Robinson said “it is clear” there are former and current DUP members who had information about the conduct of Donaldson that was not shared with the party.
Speaking to the Assembly on Monday, Poots said there was “nothing of a criminal or safeguarding nature raised” in the concerns of the woman.
He said he had asked the chief executive of the Assembly to carry out an investigation relating to Donaldson’s actions when he was an MLA.
DUP leader Robinson told the BBC Talkback programme on Tuesday that he has “no reason to doubt” Poots’s account of his handling of concerns raised by the woman about Donaldson.
Robinson said other political parties had used the situation for “political purpose”.
“The hypocrisy that lies behind those in politics using this tragedy for their own political ends, it’s not only disappointing but I think it’s clear for the public to see,” he said.
“We won’t leave any stone unturned, we’re bringing someone in who is independent to conduct this review in a way no other party has, including those hypocrites in Stormont who now seem to be pointing one finger and forget that three point back at them.” – PA
