Episode 439: Man falsely identified on social media as the suspect of stabbing outside Dublin school

Jeffrey Donaldson has been found guilty of 18 historical sex offences, including one count of rape, 13 of indecent assault and four of gross indecency. The offences were against two women when they were children.  His wife Eleanor Donaldson has been found to have committed the acts relating to offences of aiding and abetting following a trial of the facts.  The leaders of the UUP and TUV immediately called for the Donaldsons to be stripped of their titles.   Jeffrey Donaldson has been taken to Maghaberry prison to start his sentence.  Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Allison Morris, Sam McBride, and Suzanne Breen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeffrey Donaldson has been found guilty of all charges – the judge said prison is “inevitable”.  A jury of seven men and five women had considered its verdicts for more than nine hours over two days, and reached a verdict just after lunch on Monday.   The 63-year-old former MP had pleaded not guilty to 18 offences including one count of rape.  His wife Eleanor Donaldson found guilty of all charges including five of aiding and abetting – she was facing a trial of the facts and cannot be convicted or go to prison.   Belfast Telegraph reporter Kyle Frazer joins Ciarán Dunbar.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the 13th of April, convicted child rapist Philip Sullivan was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. The sixty-three-year-old had already served time in prison. He was handed down two life sentences in 2008 for the rape and sexual assault of two young boys, aged nine and 11, between 2004 and 2006. The Kildare man appealed the sentence, and it was squashed. Instead, he got concurrent sentences of 15 years, with the final two and a half years suspended for 10 years on strict conditions, including that Sullivan not be in the company of minors. He was released in 2017, and last February, after a tip-off, he was found at his home in Rathmines in Dublin in the company of three teenage boys, breaking those bail conditions. Today, Jenny Friel talks to Ciara Griffin, whose younger brother, Shane Griffin, was one of Sullivan's earlier victims. Despite the chaos and horrors he experienced during his childhood, Shane became a passionate advocate for kids in the care system. But after Sullivan's release in 2017, he struggled to cope, and in 2019, he took his own life. Ciara is determined to carry on some of the work Shane started and is campaigning for changes in how sex offenders are sentenced for their crimes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conor McGregor's drug-dealing childhood pal has been convicted of viciously assaulting a man outside the UFC fighter's pub, The Black Forge Inn. Andy Murray was by McGregor's side as he travelled the world by private jet and was with him when he fought Floyd Mayweather. But today, Crime World's Patrick O'Connell tells Niall how Murray is now facing a different type of public glare after being found guilty of assault. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 This week, Bill Kenneally, one of Ireland's worst ever child sexual predators, died at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise. The 75-year-old was also a member of Waterford's most powerful political dynasties, a collection of Fianna Fáil TDs, senators, city councillors, and mayors who served for almost 60 years, right up until 2011. His influential connections didn't stop there. A late uncle, Monsignor John Shine, was a leading member of the Catholic Church in their home county. As far as we know, Kenneally began his horrific campaign of sexual abuse when he was just 17 years old, and despite victims reporting his vile crimes to the gardai as far back as 1985, it took until 2016 before he was finally jailed. For more than eight years, a commission of investigation examined how state authorities, the Catholic Church clergy, politicians, sporting organisations, and others dealt with the allegations of sexual abuse made by young boys against Kenneally. The commission, chaired by Michael White, heard over 5,000 pages of testimony, and last week they released their findings in a devastating report. It stated how there were missed opportunities and a clear and serious dereliction of duty by gardai, even by the standards of the late '80s. Last week, before Kenneally died, we spoke to sexual abuse survivor Jason Clancy, who, along with five of his childhood friends and fellow survivors, Kevin Keating, Gerry Mullane, Barry Murphy, Colin Power, and Paul Walsh, went public in their efforts to get to the full truth about Kenneally's heinous crimes and why it took so long to get him stopped. Please be warned, this podcast contains disturbing and frank details about sexual abuse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.