Iris Robinson, 61, the former Democratic Unionist member of Parliament who has undergone a criminal investigation over financial dealings with her 19-year-old lover Kirk McCambley, is now considering legal action after it emerged that she will not be prosecuted, according to the Belfast Telegraph.

Robinson’s affair with the son of a best friend, fully 40 years her junior scandalized Northern Ireland and at one point Robinson was considered a suicide risk. Her husband, Peter Robinson, is Northern Ireland’s First Minister.

The investigation had been launched after the BBC’s Spotlight programme revealed that Mrs Robinson (61) had secured £50,000 in loans from property developers to bankroll her then lover’s riverside café business.

But the Public Prosecution Service announced on Friday that after “careful consideration” of evidence, Robinson would not be prosecuted.

“Following careful consideration of all the available evidence a decision has been taken not to prosecute this case,” a PPS spokeswoman said.

A Robinson family spokesman issued a statement on Friday, saying that  all legal options were now “under active consideration.”

“We note the decision of the Public Prosecution Service,” he said. “In the year since the Spotlight programme, with the police investigation and council investigation ongoing, we have amassed substantial material demonstrating serious and damaging inaccuracies in the BBC Spotlight programme.

“Mrs Robinson will be making, through her solicitor, a detailed statement following the publication of the report commissioned by the council and all legal options are now under active consideration.”

The BBC issued a statement in defense of the investigation.

“The issues Spotlight uncovered during its investigation of several months into Iris Robinson were of significant public interest and were well sourced,” it said.

Adding that, “The programme was a piece of responsible journalism and a matter of public importance.”

Mrs Robinson, who attempted suicide after admitting the affair to her husband, has been receiving medical treatment for depression and has retired from public life.