Sister of alleged Skye gunman ‘tried to save her husband’s life’, court hears

The sister of the alleged Isle of Skye gunman told how she was unpacking after holiday when she saw the man walk past her with the gun and enter her family home before hearing explosions and trying to save her husband’s life, a court heard.

Mum-of-six Lyn-Anne MacKinnon, 45, told the commission that when she saw Finlay MacDonald’s car pull into the driveway, she believed it was his wife Rowena, who had been told her brother could not drive due to a road accident. back injury.

MacDonald, 41, denies killing his brother-in-law, John MacKinnon, by shooting him repeatedly with a shotgun on Aug. 10, 2022.

He also denies three charges of attempted murder on the same day, including an osteopath he blamed for his back injury, and a knife attack on his wife Rowena MacDonald, 34, at a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh.

MacDonald launched a special defense against the murder charge, claiming that “his ability to determine or control his behavior is greatly impaired by mental abnormality.”

Mrs MacKinnon, who was widowed on August 10 when her husband John was allegedly shot while standing in front of the kitchen sink, recalled that she was a “mother hen” for her two brothers, Finlay and Neil, who became MacDonald’s family as they grew up. My home on Skye.

She told the court she had been married to John MacKinnon for 15 years and was “unaware there was anything problematic” between her husband and his brother.

The court heard the MacKinnons returned to Skye on August 9 after a holiday in Glasgow and on August 10, Ms MacKinnon was driving her adult daughter and baby to an appointment when she heard a car “torn up” the road. The driveway of the family home in the village of Teangue on the island’s Sleat peninsula.

He said when he recognized the car he initially believed it was Ms MacDonald driving and told the court he believed it would reveal the extent of the couple’s marital problems, which his brother told him about in mid-July.

Ms. MacKinnon said she woke up at about 8.50am and went out to the driveway in her dressing gown to unpack, while her husband, a distillery worker, made himself breakfast shortly before planning to help his neighbor with some DIY work.

He said: “I heard a car drive up the road and park at the gabled end of the house. When I looked out the back window, I realized it was Finlay’s car. He told us he couldn’t drive anymore.

“I actually thought it was Rowena because she drives her car sometimes. I thought Rowena was coming to tell me what was going on between the two of them. I kept putting things away, thinking, ‘He’ll come and chat with me.’ When I got out of the car I soon realized it wasn’t him, it was Finlay. At that stage he was walking up the back stairs.

“When I looked up, I could see he was holding a gun next to him. Just ‘Finlay, what do you think you’re doing?’ I said. I did not receive any response. The inner doors were wide open. He just entered the house and when I took four or five steps from the car to the door, I already heard explosions.

“So when I entered the supply room, I rushed past Finlay; He passed me and walked towards his car. When I walked in I saw John still standing upright and moaning. I started screaming and screaming.

“My son came running in, I think he might have seen him, at that moment I caught John in my arms, he was collapsing and moaning and I lowered him gently to the ground.”

She became emotional as she said: “John was standing in front of the kitchen sink. “His internal organs were coming out.”

Ms MacKinnon said she shouted for her children to call an ambulance, but saw someone flashing a blue light in front of the house. The family was given medical advice over the phone by the emergency service, while some of the children sought help from a GP who lived in the area. , who attended.

Prosecutor Liam Ewing KC said: “The paramedics arrived after this. “It was decided that nothing could be done for your wife after they arrived.”

Ms MacKinnon said there was an “argument” between her husband and his brother in July 2013 when she tried to give MacDonald a birthday present, which she “threw back at me angrily” while she was heavily pregnant. The court listened to his children.

In evidence, he said MacDonald had worked on the Queen Mary II after naval school and asked her for advice about his state of mind, but she told him “he couldn’t do anything about it because of his job, his career is over, he won’t be allowed to go to sea again”.

The court heard that in mid-July 2022, after an 18-month separation, MacDonald contacted her and told her about her back injury and marital problems.

MacDonald denies attempting to murder his wife, Rowena MacDonald, after allegedly stabbing her multiple times on August 10, 2022.

The court heard that a police officer who went to the MacDonalds’ home after the alleged stabbing found “a little boy with blood on his knees crawling towards me”.

Sergeant Ian Carr, 46, said Ms MacDonald was “fairly still” when she arrived and when he entered the house he saw “three little heads” and was informed there might be a gun locker there, the court heard.

He said: “Finally one of them took me into the kitchen and tried to show me where the knife was in the kitchen. On top of the microwave in a cover. There was also blood on it.”

The court heard MacDonald denied charges of attempting to murder Fay and John Don MacKenzie, a married couple who were allegedly attacked in the village of Dornie in Wester Ross on the Scottish mainland on the same day.

The trial continues before Judge Lady Drummond.