:00:00. > :00:00.The DUP says it spent a donation of over ?400,000 in last
:00:07. > :00:13.The party, which has been under pressure to name its donor,
:00:14. > :00:15.today disclosed where it got the money from.
:00:16. > :00:18.The cash came from a little known group of pro-union business people
:00:19. > :00:19.led by a Scottish Conservative, Richard Cook.
:00:20. > :00:22.The money from the 'Constitutional Research Council' was spent mainly
:00:23. > :00:26.The donors' identity was revealed at the same time
:00:27. > :00:27.as the Electoral Commission published how much parties spent
:00:28. > :00:47.Our Political Correspondent Stephen Walker reports.
:00:48. > :00:49.Scottish Conservative Richard Cook is the man behind
:00:50. > :00:52.the Constitutional Research Council - a group that has attracted little
:00:53. > :00:55.A former Tory parliamentary candidate, he has a pro-union
:00:56. > :01:00.This organisation made a decision that it thought that Brexit would be
:01:01. > :01:03.better for the union and because of that it decided it
:01:04. > :01:06.wanted to invest in the Brexit campaign, it had a lot
:01:07. > :01:09.of money, more than ?400,000, and it started to look at where it could
:01:10. > :01:21.The breakdown of the DUP's spending provided by the Electoral Commission
:01:22. > :01:27.shows that the party spent a total of ?425,621.
:01:28. > :01:30.Of that, ?10,823 was spent in Northern Ireland -
:01:31. > :01:32.more than half of that with Belfast Telegraph owners,
:01:33. > :01:41.The biggest single spend was the ?282,000, which went
:01:42. > :01:44.on the advertising pages in the Metro - a freesheet
:01:45. > :01:52.Almost ?100,000 was spent with a Cambridgeshire company
:01:53. > :01:55.supplying promotional and advertising material.
:01:56. > :02:03.A further ?32,750 went to a Canadian IT and consultancy company.
:02:04. > :02:06.The DUP say they were given more by the group than they actually
:02:07. > :02:12.spent and the remainder - some ?9000 - was used by the party.
:02:13. > :02:15.We received ?435,000 and we spent over ?425,000 in the EU referendum
:02:16. > :02:17.campaign and we had around ?9,000 left
:02:18. > :02:18.and we transferred that to the
:02:19. > :02:20.normal funds for prounion campaigning and so we're giving
:02:21. > :02:34.So does this donation raise any questions?
:02:35. > :02:38.Who are these people and why are they getting
:02:39. > :02:44.Why did they decide that in order to help support Brexit, they
:02:45. > :02:46.wanted to give money to the Democratic unionists in Northern
:02:47. > :02:54.The DUP say they have been transparent and say the issue
:02:55. > :02:55.of party funding needs to be addressed.
:02:56. > :02:58.We have revealed the details of the dollar
:02:59. > :03:02.ball is in the Court of the other parties,
:03:03. > :03:07.The only other parties to spend money in
:03:08. > :03:10.the campaign by the SDLP and the TV, who spent under ?10,000.
:03:11. > :03:15.The issue of wider political funding has been
:03:16. > :03:18.raised on the campaign trail, some parties keeping their donations
:03:19. > :03:33.All parties say they support transparency.
:03:34. > :03:39.After the election we will see if words and actions match up.
:03:40. > :03:43.A lorry driver, who was driving on the wrong side of the road
:03:44. > :03:45.when he crashed into a van, killing the driver, has been
:03:46. > :03:48.51-year-old Albertas Daskevicius is originally from Lithuania and now
:03:49. > :04:04.Sean McElwee was driving between Strabane and, around ten
:04:05. > :04:07.o'clock on a per night in 2015 when he was suddenly confronted
:04:08. > :04:08.by every driver's nightmare, an articulated
:04:09. > :04:11.lorry bearing down on him on the wrong side of the road.
:04:12. > :04:13.There was just time for his father, a
:04:14. > :04:17.passenger, to shout, where is that man going?
:04:18. > :04:20.Before the terrible impact took his life.
:04:21. > :04:23.His father survived and was in court today to
:04:24. > :04:27.Albertas Daskevicius is 51 and originally
:04:28. > :04:32.from Lithuania but with an address at Bawn Court in Ballykelly.
:04:33. > :04:34.He was jailed for nine months for causing
:04:35. > :04:40.With a further nine months on licence.
:04:41. > :04:43.He had been initially caused with causing death by dangerous
:04:44. > :04:44.driving but later pleaded guilty to the
:04:45. > :04:49.The defence said there was no evidence his client had
:04:50. > :04:53.been speeding are using a mobile phone, he had not been drinking and
:04:54. > :04:59.He said his client had not taken a calculated risk but that it was
:05:00. > :05:04.simply a terrible error of judgment with tragic consequences.
:05:05. > :05:06.At the time of the accident, Albertas
:05:07. > :05:09.Daskevicius had no insurance and he was given a separate nine-month
:05:10. > :05:14.sentence for that and banned from driving for ten years.
:05:15. > :05:15.Several members of Sean McElwee's family
:05:16. > :05:17.sobbed quietly in the public gallery as a prison
:05:18. > :05:18.officer put handcuffs on
:05:19. > :05:20.Albertas Daskevicius and led him away.
:05:21. > :05:31.The family declined to say anything as they left court.
:05:32. > :05:33.A man has been arrested in connection with the death
:05:34. > :05:38.The 48-year-old is accused of having and supplying drugs.
:05:39. > :05:47.The woman, who was in her 30s, was found in the Orior Park area.
:05:48. > :05:50.The loss of another tree at the dark hedges in County Antrim has led
:05:51. > :05:53.to renewed calls for more to be done to protect them.
:05:54. > :05:56.The trees near Armoy have been made famous by the television
:05:57. > :06:06.And another victim felled at the Dark Hedges.
:06:07. > :06:10.These trees have been here for more than 200 years,
:06:11. > :06:13.but just a few seconds on Game of Thrones saw them become
:06:14. > :06:20.More tourists means more vehicles and traffic is thought
:06:21. > :06:23.to be weakening the roots of the aging trees.
:06:24. > :06:27.These tourists agree something should be done.
:06:28. > :06:30.It is mother nature as well, something you need to look after.
:06:31. > :06:32.Protection is important to see this in the future.
:06:33. > :06:35.It is something we have to look after.
:06:36. > :06:38.He would not see this shutdown as a tourist
:06:39. > :06:42.destination but you have to take into account looking after the
:06:43. > :06:48.There are proposals to close the road to traffic -
:06:49. > :06:53.Those who love this place say only an immediate change will guarantee
:06:54. > :07:00.These are our natural heritage and we must protect them,
:07:01. > :07:01.and building would have listed status, and these
:07:02. > :07:05.trees need to be listed and we must do all our power to ensure they are
:07:06. > :07:07.preserved and that should include restricting along this road.
:07:08. > :07:13.There are just two seasons lefts of Game of Thrones,
:07:14. > :07:18.but it's very much hoped the Dark Hedges will survive long
:07:19. > :07:29.after the programme that made them famous ends.
:07:30. > :07:31.Rory McIlroy has defended playing golf with President Trump
:07:32. > :07:36.In a statement on his Twitter account he said it wasn't
:07:37. > :07:39.an endorsement or political statement of any kind.
:07:40. > :07:46.In football, Derry City made a impressive start
:07:47. > :07:50.to the Premier Division season with a comfortable 4-1
:07:51. > :07:58.Aaron McEneff scored a penalty and substitute Nathan Boyle made it
:07:59. > :08:02.Boyle added a third with a low strike early in the second half
:08:03. > :08:05.with Lukas Schubert scoring the fourth.
:08:06. > :08:14.Now here's Geoff with the weekend weather.
:08:15. > :08:19.Good evening. After a brief pause this evening to rain we saw through
:08:20. > :08:25.the second half of today will return overnight. Showers being driven in
:08:26. > :08:29.on that freshening south-westerly breeze. We could see some gusts
:08:30. > :08:33.around the North West tonight. We get off to a wet and windy start to
:08:34. > :08:37.the weekend. It is a picture that will improve through the day. The
:08:38. > :08:42.band of rain gradually tracking east. We will see our warmest
:08:43. > :08:47.temperatures through the first half of the day with highs of ten or 11
:08:48. > :08:51.degrees. Once the rain clears temperatures will drop off. Just
:08:52. > :09:00.before dusk we will see temperatures of around six or 7 degrees. The rain
:09:01. > :09:02.will continue its path east. Always a bit warmer in front of the rain.
:09:03. > :09:07.Temperatures in the clearing skies will drop away in Scotland and
:09:08. > :09:11.Northern Ireland. Overnight on Saturday, relatively cold. Integral
:09:12. > :09:19.spots, temperatures just above freezing. A chilly stop berry-macro
:09:20. > :09:23.start to Sunday. The rain comes in from the south and south-west.
:09:24. > :09:28.Temperatures coming up to nine, maybe 10 degrees. Lots of whether
:09:29. > :09:32.heading in our direction at the moment. Active systems in the
:09:33. > :09:37.Atlantic and these tightly packed isobars are a sign of the wind
:09:38. > :09:41.heading in our direction. By the time we start next week, cooler air
:09:42. > :09:44.and temperatures will drop away. It's not until the middle of next
:09:45. > :09:46.week that we will see more subtle conditions.
:09:47. > :09:49.Our next BBC Newsline is at 5.20pm tomorrow evening.
:09:50. > :09:51.In the meantime, you can keep updated with News Online.
:09:52. > :09:53.From all of us here on the programme, goodnight
:09:54. > :10:02.What she's been doing, you think that's normal?