DUP MP hits out at Ian Paisley Jnr for his silence on Jeffrey Donaldson rumours - while revealing what he knew and saw while he was sharing a London flat with convicted paedophile

Published: 11:51, 12 July 2026 | Updated: 11:56, 12 July 2026 DUP MP Sammy Wilson has hit out at party colleagues who have only now come forward to make revelations about disgraced former leader’s Jeffrey Donaldson’s past behaviour after his conviction for sex offences. Mr Wilson – who shared a flat with Donaldson in London – spoke out as the fallout continues from one of the North’s biggest political scandals. Since he was jailed, there has been a near daily stream of damaging revelations about the former leader of unionism. DUP figures have come forward to break their silence on their disgraced former colleague as reviews are launched by the party – and Stormont itself. Claims about Donaldson in recent weeks include those in the BBC Spotlight programme, Politician, Predator and Paedophile, in which former MP Ian Paisley Jr said he witnessed him on more than one occasion ‘blindingly drunk’. In one incident, he recalled Donaldson sitting on a female MLA’s lap and trying to kiss her while on a trip to the US and projectile vomiting over the mayor of Beijing while on a trade mission to China. Meanwhile, a former police officer said Donaldson visited a London sauna marketed as a meeting place for gay men the same year he described homosexuality as ‘sinful’. Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, Sammy Wilson expressed surprise these damning claims were not raised with the party and questioned why some have waited until now to come forward. He said: ‘He [Paisley] seemed to have more willingness to spill his guts to Spotlight than he did to the party officers, because none of that, as far as I’m aware, was ever conveyed to the party hierarchy. ‘What does Spotlight have that the people who could have taken action didn’t have? ‘That’s all I can ask. I mean, that’s a question for Ian, not for me, because I think that he needs to explain if he knew all of this. ‘I had no inkling of any of that. I can honestly tell you that. If I had known any of that, I would have raised it with him. ‘Apart from anything else, I would have just said: “Catch yourself on, do you realise how exposed you’re leaving yourself?” ‘I suppose because I was in contact with him on a regular basis, an MP and living in the same flat, I would have had opportunity to do so.  'I had never any occasion to do it because I never knew anything. ‘Yes, I would have been probably closer to him in terms of contact than many others would have been because we shared a flat, and there was no inkling of that lifestyle in the flat, no inkling of that lifestyle in any of the conversations, and no inkling of that lifestyle from other people saying to me. ‘What surprises me is, with all this stuff that people say they knew about him, though they didn’t say anything about it at the time, and that includes journalists who say that they knew but didn’t write anything.  'But even within the party, nobody asked me: “Look, does he come home drunk at night?  'Does he have drink in the house?  'Did he ever bring any women back to the house?” ‘All the things that they’re alleging now that he did, I’d have been best placed to give them information if it was happening, and nobody ever, ever asked me.’ Mr Wilson – who shared a flat with Donaldson in London – spoke out as the fallout continues from one of the North’s biggest political scandals Mr Wilson, who has served politician as DUP Chief Whip in the House of Commons since 2019, said he did not ‘socialise much’ with his old flatmate but insisted he did not witness any inappropriate behaviour from Donaldson. ‘I mean, all of this stuff’s new to me because he was much more social than I would have been, he’d have gone to more functions in the House of Commons. He’d have come in late. I was usually in bed by the time he came. ‘I usually left early in the morning because I went on a motorbike and escaped the traffic. ‘He left later than I would have done. We didn’t socialise [together] much. I didn’t have much in common with Jeffrey from that point of view. ‘So all of this stuff that journalists say they knew, and party members said they knew, and everything else, it just passed me by.  'I was never ever aware of any of it.  'All of this kind of lifestyle that he was supposed to have led in London came as a total shock to me because that’s not the impression I ever had. ‘I mean, we lived in the same flat.  'There was never any evidence that he had this kind of debauched lifestyle.  ‘And I also question for another reason, because the people who are now saying that they knew all of this did absolutely nothing about it within the party.  'I was never aware that anybody raised anything. ‘Don’t forget, I was a party officer for… I don’t know many years… none of this was ever raised at the party officer level.  'So obviously the people who say they knew these things never raised it with any party officers.’ Jim Allister, who had been a member of the DUP since its foundation in 1971 but is now leader of the TUV and MP for North Antrim, said the Donaldson scandal has caused ‘brand damage’ to his former party. He told the MoS: ‘I think inevitably there will be brand damage to the DUP because they made him their leader, and there seems to have been quite a background of knowledge and suspicion about his activities, and yet, in spite of that, he was made leader. ‘And more than that, then he became the poster boy of the DUP and presented as the unionist leader that you could trust. ‘And of course, he was found out on the Irish Sea border that he was prepared to peddle any lie that it took, and yet the DUP stood by him through all that. ‘So I think they are bound to take brand damage. ‘But I suppose my greater concern is, will it have an impact adversely on ordinary unionist voters who will be so disgusted by all they’ve now learnt that they might be tempted to think, “Ah, I’m never going to vote again.”?  'Well, of course, that would be the response that the enemies of unionism would hope for. ‘And, of course, my antidote to that would be, “well you should vote for those who you can trust, who told you the truth about the Irish Sea border when Jeffrey was telling you, and others were nodding to his lies, that the Irish Sea border was gone”.  'It was the TUV that was telling you, “No, it’s not.” ‘Of course, we now know the noose tightens with every week that passes. ‘So I think there inevitably is going to be brand damage to the DUP, and deservedly so, if you make a person such as that your leader and then present him as the ultimate guy to be trusted and he turns out to be what he was. ‘I think there is a sense of shock across MPs at the deviancy of it all, and just how depraved some of it is.  'I suppose there’s many people anxious to say that they knew nothing, they saw nothing, but it seems an amazing number of people who saw and heard nothing in these circumstances.’ Claims about Donaldson in recent weeks include those in the BBC Spotlight programme, Politician, Predator and Paedophile, in which former MP Ian Paisley Jr said he witnessed him on more than one occasion ‘blindingly drunk’ On Friday, DUP Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said in an interview with UTV that she ‘absolutely’ did not witness any disturbing behaviour by Donaldson. She said: ‘I feel really sick even saying his name because of that betrayal.  'I did not know that this man was a sexual predator.  'I did not know that this man was a predator towards children. ‘It is absolutely against every value that I would have, if I’d known that and would not have gone to the police, would not have immediately severed all and any contact with this person.’ Ms Little-Pengelly said the revelations in the Donaldson trial were ‘absolutely shocking’ as she said she never had any reason to believe he was an abuser.  She added: ‘Up until his arrest, I didn’t see anything that would have given me any rise for concern in terms of him being a sexual offender, of him being a paedophile.’ Speaking for the first time about Donaldson since his conviction, DUP veteran Gregory Campbell also insisted he did not encounter any inappropriate behaviour in London as a fellow MP. ‘No, no I didn’t, all the time I’ve known him, but I caveat this with the fact I wouldn’t have tended to be out at social events with Jeffrey, so that might explain what I am going to say,’ he said. ‘When he was arrested for this, I was absolutely blown away, like, “I can’t believe that this is right.”  'Because in all the years I’d known him and been with him at different events, I hadn’t seen any of this, and I never saw any misbehaviour of any kind. ‘But having said that, the things I would tend to be at with him might be, for example, if we were at a meal out, which we might have done maybe once or twice a year, say the last sitting before Christmas, the parliamentary party might have went out for a meal somewhere. ‘But we were all there, and I suppose if he was living a double life, which we now know he was, he would probably have been very careful not to misbehave in that environment when he’s got four or five MPs of the same party sitting with him. ‘Sometimes we might have had a dignitary over from Northern Ireland and would have treated them to a bite of lunch. ‘So we would have had a sort of almost informal gathering there but again, he would have been with people of like mind, and possibly just behaved himself impeccably. ‘But all the times I had seen him, no, I never came across any misbehaviour of any kind, either alcohol, sexual.  'There was no hint or suggestion of anything.  'Very, very few people knew much, if anything, about this double life, and if they did, they didn’t say anything about it at the time.’ Mr Campbell also insisted that the DUP can come out stronger when they finally put the Donaldson scandal behind them, despite other parties trying to make political gain in the meantime. Former MP Ian Paisley Jr said he witnessed Donaldson on more than one occasion ‘blindingly drunk’ He added: ‘Oh, I can see that that’s what they’re trying to do. ‘I mean I’m out and about all the time... and, in fact, I went a bit more at doing it precisely to establish what are people thinking about and what are they saying in the aftermath of the verdict.  'And I have found a sense of extreme sadness and concern that people believe now they were badly misled by Jeffrey on a personal level. ‘But not in any way attacking the DUP because I think most members of the public understand that if this man led a double life, how on earth would we hold something politically against colleagues who knew nothing about what he was doing, and they’re as shocked as we are. ‘So I don’t detect that there is that.  'I think there will be sort of aftermaths, people coming to terms with it and that will be the case probably for weeks and months to come. ‘I’ve been on the party officer team for a long time and this is something that was unforeseen in totality, couldn’t have been predicted, is a shattering blow in terms of the former leader’s standing because he now doesn’t have any at all. ‘There’s no integrity, no standing, nothing in society. ‘But what we do as a result of that is we say, “justice, to some degree, has been served”, and we stand with the victims, and we then collectively say this is not going to deter or detract from our mission to represent our community.’ ‘A sort of an emboldenment amongst members and supporters to say: “Look, nobody’s going to use this as some sort of whip to beat us because we will come out of this not just unharmed but stronger.”’ On Friday, the Northern Ireland Assembly confirmed it has launched a review into disgraced Donaldson’s behaviour while a member of the assembly (MLA) from 2003 until 2010. They said it is being conducted by the director of parliamentary services, the assembly’s senior safeguarding officer, and will take place until August 21, with a report to be provided to the clerk/chief executive by August 28. A statement added that the review’s purpose was to enable any MLA or former MLA, current or former assembly or party staff, or other user of Parliament Buildings to bring forward, in a ‘safe and supported manner’, any incidents of abuse or inappropriate behaviour they directly experienced while Donaldson was an MLA or visitor to Parliament Buildings. On Thursday, the DUP announced that child safety expert and former senior police officer, Jim Gamble, would lead an independent review for the party into Donaldson’s behaviour while he was in the DUP. Asked to comment this weekend, Ian Paisley Jr told the MoS: ‘I’ll be talking to Jim Gamble whenever the inquiry is set up.’ Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.