It would be a scandal if Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's trial was to collapse - or never even start - due to the failure of the justice system. Thus far, the authorities seem impotent despite widespread & dangerous law-breaking online.
➡️belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

Journalist Ruth Dudley Edwards has been informed by her solicitor that Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly has been ordered to pay her legal costs after his libel case against her was struck out of court.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-…

The politics of this alone are momentous. But in the interests of justice - as well as your bank balance - you should be very careful in commenting on the allegations which are now before a court. If not, you could go to jail, or be sued for defamation.

Eleanor Donaldson earlier this afternoon leaving Newry court house where she and her husband Jeffrey were facing several charges.

Eleanor was whisked away in a separate vehicle, driven by a man wearing a flat cap and a protective mask. Belfast Telegraph

belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/courts/je…

This was the moment Jeffrey Donaldson arrived in Court in Newry.

Donaldson (61) is facing 11 charges: one count of rape, one count of gross indecency towards a child and nine counts of indecent assault on a female. The allegations relate to two complainants Belfast Telegraph…

Victims of sex crimes in Northern Ireland could face six months in prison if they publicly name their suspected abusers under a new anonymity law, the High Court has heard. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/courts/se… belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/courts/se…

I successfully fought a reporting restriction at court with my own legal team in 2010 so that my abuser could be named. I never imagined that politicians would bring in a law like this. It is ridiculous.

Alliance's South Down MLA Patrick Brown has resigned with immediate effect for 'personal reasons' less than two years after being elected. He grew Alliance's vote & then won the seat in a major breakthrough for Alliance, but has been involved in a series of controversies.

A highly-classified 1984 Army paper expressed concern the RUC might get more involved in “the mucky end” of intelligence-gathering - and said a violent loyalist reaction to Irish unity plans would overwhelm the security forces.
➡️belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…

Test cricket at Stormont: Ireland are to play their first ever home test match at Stormont in July. An amazing achievement, which until a few years ago would have been unfathomable. Let's hope the weather plays ball...
➡️belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/…
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/…

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness separately said in private that the IRA had been wrong not to decommission before Sept 11 - but a month after the Al-Qaeda attack, British intelligence showed the IRA still seeking new weapons.
➡️belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…

The ferocious hatred which inspired massacres hasn’t died with the Troubles; it's visible on this and other online platforms every day. Some reflections on the Kingsmill massacre, Seamus Heaney, common decency, & hidden hared.
➡️belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

The largest single payment to an informant in Northern Ireland during the first 13 years of the Troubles was £15,000 for information which led to the arrest of a “notorious” IRA unit in 1981, according to a previously secret file.
➡️belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…

More big news from us.....

The BelTel podcast wins a major prize at prestigious New York radio awards NYF Radio Awards

Well done Sam McBride - what a day yesterday was.

belfasttelegraph.co.uk/podcasts/the-b…