Jeffrey Donaldson's long Good Friday ahead of court appearance over allegations

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The impact of ex-DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson’s arrest and charges over alleged historic sexual offences is reverberating.He is no longer party leader, has been suspended as a party member, is suspended from the Orange Order - and is awaiting a first appearance in court over criminal allegations.Mr Donaldson's world changed at 6.38am on Thursday when a squad of PSNI cars quietly rolled up to his home in Dromore, County Down.

As reported by Belfast Live, officers had an arrest warrant for Mr Donaldson.A 57-year-old woman had also been arrested as part of the investigation.

By 7am Mr Donaldson was on the road in a police vehicle heading to Antrim PSNI custody suite where he and the female suspect were then questioned at intervals across the next 14 hours.By 10pm each had been charged and released.

The DUP gathered hours later to consider their reaction to the developments. Meanwhile, Mr Donaldson’s X account was deactivated while his profile was later removed from the DUP’s website.Early yesterday afternoon the DUP emailed every news outlet in the country with an 80-word statement, confirming the man who had been charged was one of their own, not only a party member but the party leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.They confirmed Mr Donaldson had formally written to them stating he had been charged with “allegations of an historical nature” and that he was stepping down from his party post.