Skye murder accused had ‘long-standing problem controlling his anger’

A murder accused was a man with "a long-standing problem controlling his anger" who had a deep set resentment against two men, a court heard this week.

A prosecutor told the High Court in Edinburgh that Finlay MacDonald had begun to take steps to prepare for a violent attack using a gun against one or both men.

Advocate depute Liam Ewing KC said: "In the period before he murdered John MacKinnon the accused's health deteriorated. He was depressed and anxious about his job and his marriage.

"He had a deep-rooted resentment against two men. He began to take steps to prepare for a violent attack, using a firearm, against one or both of them," the prosecutor said in his closing speech to a jury.

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Mr Ewing said that MacDonald initially carried out a frenzied knife attack on his wife Rowena but what he did next was very different. He maintained that he acted in a controlled way as he took a gun and ammunition to travel to the destinations of further shooting targets, his brother-in-law and a retired osteopath.

The prosecutor argued that the way he acted and took steps to prepare ahead of the attack on Mr MacKinnon demonstrated that the appropriate verdict for the jury to return was one of murder, rather than the lesser offence of culpable homicide.

He said that to return a verdict of culpable homicide the jury would have to be satisfied that MacDonald's ability to control and determine his conduct was "significantly impaired".

Mr Ewing pointed out to jurors that it was for the accused to prove diminished responsibility, not the prosecution. He said: "It is for the accused to prove diminished responsibility. If he does not, it is murder.

"There must be something far wrong with him, which affects the way he acts," he said.

Mr Ewing urged jurors to consider what MacDonald did after he stabbed his wife. He said: "Look at the way he selected his targets. What that shows is a man fully in control, fully able to determine his conduct."

He said that after the knife attack on his wife MacDonald set off with a pump action shotgun, more than 400 cartridges and a further knife.

Mr Ewing said that if jurors looked at the actions of MacDonald after he stabbed his wife they would see "a man whose ability to control and determine his actions was not in any way impaired".

Marine engineer MacDonald (41) has denied murdering his distillery worker brother-in- law on August 10 in 2022 by shooting him at his family home at Teangue, on the Isle of Skye.

He has lodged a special defence maintaining that at the time of the alleged offence his ability to determine and control his conduct was substantially impaired by abnormality of mind.

MacDonald has also denied attempting to murder his wife Rowena (34) at their family home at Tarskavaig on Skye on the same date by repeatedly stabbing her.

He has also denied attempting to murder retired osteopath John MacKenzie and his wife Fay, both 65, on the same day at their home in the village of Dornie, in Ross-shire, by discharging a shotgun at them.

The trial before Lady Drummond continues.