Skye shooter Finlay MacDonald who killed brother-in-law and stabbed wife jailed for life
A BRUTAL killer was today jailed for life after murdering his brother-in-law during a crime spree that brought carnage to communities in the Highlands and Islands.
Finlay MacDonald (41) was ordered to serve at least 28 years in prison before he becomes eligible to apply for release on parole after he was convicted of the murder of John MacKinnon and the attempted murders of three others, including his wife.
A judge told him: "You carried out a series of brutal and mindlessly violent attacks with a knife and a pump action shotgun within a matter of hours."
READ ALSO
Further court coverage from the Skye murder trial
Reports from sheriff court cases in Ross-shire
Sign up to the free Ross-shire newsletter
Lady Drummond said that relatives of Mr MacKinnon felt like they had lost the life and soul of the family after he was taken away from them.
The judge said that although jurors rejected a claim of diminished responsibility put forward on behalf of MacDonald his health issues were still a matter to be taken into account and she acknowledged that he has expressed remorse.
Lady Drummond also noted that the jury by their verdict rejected a claim that he was provoked into attacking his wife "by reason of sexual infidelity".
MacDonald armed himself with a pump action shotgun before fatally shooting John MacKinnon at the victim's family home on the Isle of Skye.
He attempted to murder his wife Rowena (34) in a savage knife attack at his family home on the island before collecting the recently bought firearm and enough ammunition "to start a small war" as he set out to settle his perceived grievances.
After executing unarmed Mr MacKinnon MacDonald drove to the Scottish mainland, followed by police in marked police cars, where he turned his gun on retired osteopath John Donald MacKenzie and his wife Fay, both 65, and shot them at their home in the Ross-shire village of Dornie in a bid to murder them.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that McDonald was planning to go out "in a blaze of glory" after he went to "sort out" Mr MacKenzie but was Tasered and struck with a baton by police after he opened fire at the victim's home.
Marine engineer MacDonald denied attempting to murder Mr and Mrs MacKenzie and his own wife on August 10 in 2022 and murdering Mr MacKinnon on the same date.
He claimed that at the time of the murder he was suffering from diminished responsibility which significantly impaired his ability to determine and control his actions.
It was said to stem from his then undiagnosed autism and other conditions which he was suffering from, including post traumatic stress disorder and a personality disorder.
But a jury rejected his special defence to the murder charge of diminished responsibilty and convicted him of the crime which carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. He was also found him guilty of the attempted murder charges.
Defence solicitor advocate Shahid Latif said MacDonald was a first offender who has expressed regret for what he did.
Advocate depute Liam Ewing KC said MacDonald was a man with "a long standing problem controlling his anger" who had a deep set resentment against both his brother-in-law and the osteopath.
The prosecutor 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," he told the court.
Mr Ewing said the initial assault MacDonald carried out on his wife was "a frenzied knife attack" but he then acted in a controlled way as he gathered his gun and more than 400 rounds of ammunition, along with a machete, and travelled to the home of his brother-in-law and then on to the home of the osteopath.
Mrs MacDonald told the court that on the morning of the attack on her, her husband showed her pictures on his phone that he had taken of messages on her phone between her and a work colleague.
She said she assumed that he had read she was planning on leaving and that he thought she was also having an affair. She said they probably came across as "a little flirty".
She said she and the work colleague were "just friends" and she told her husband that she was not involved with anyone else. She said: "He did seem to momentarily settle and put his phone in his pocket but it was shortly after he pulled out his knife from his pocket and started stabbing me."
She was asked where he stabbed her and replied: "Everywhere he could." She said: "I was absolutely terrified. It just kept coming and coming."
The mother-of-four said: "I screamed. The children came to the door from the living room and saw it." The attack continued but she managed to get outside and made a 999 call and her daughter, who was eight, followed her and took over on the call to the operator.
Mrs MacDonald was flown by air ambulance to hospital in Glasgow and was found to have sustained nine stab wounds with injuries to her chest and liver posing a danger to her life.
She told the court that her husband went on about his health every day during their marriage and became convinced that the osteopath he went to for treatment had "ruined his life".
She said: "He would frequently say 'I am going to kill him. I am going to kill him for ruining my life'." She said she assumed it was "just talk" and told him to calm down.
She said he was not the type of person who could easily move on from a dispute and not bear a grudge.
After the attack on her at the family home in Tarskavaig, on Skye, MacDonald drove to Mr MacKinnon's home at Sassaig, Teangue on the island where he shot his victim three times, including a fatal gunshot to his chest.
The victim's widow, Lyn-Anne MacKinnon (45) told the court that she was taking items from a car when she saw her brother MacDonald arrive at the house before the shooting.
She said she could see he was holding a gun at his side and said 'Finlay, what do you think you are doing'. I didn't get any response." Her brother walked into her home and she followed.
"As I walked the steps from the car to the door I heard bangs. I walked into the kitchen and found John. At that point he was still upright, he was groaning," she said.
The mother-of-six said she caught her husband in her arms as he was collapsing and lowered him to the floor. She said: "I was screaming in horror."
Her children appeared and she was shouting for an ambulance to be called and to go and get a doctor. Her brother passed her in a utility room and she told the court: "He never uttered a word. He never said anything."
The court heard that distillery worker Mr MacKinnon (47) had confronted MacDonald and got into a fight with him years earlier after MacDonald threw a birthday present given to him by his then heavily pregnant sister back at her "in a rage". MacDonald's elderly father had to intervene to protect him and MacDonald was left feeling humiliated.
Following the fatal shooting MacDonald drove across the Skye bridge to the mainland with two marked police cars behind him. One of the following officers, Inspector Bruce Crawford (40), said he requested permission to try and stop the Subaru driven by MacDonald but was told by the control room not to do so.
The court heard that the control room for the operation was in Dundee and armed officers were dispatched from Inverness to respond to the incident.
He said that after they stopped at a property in Dornie he saw the car driver with a shotgun before a woman came out of the house. He shouted at her to go back inside and lock the doors.
The inspector said the woman ran back inside and he saw the gunman bring the shotgun up to an aiming position on his shoulder before he fired through a window.
He shouted at him, telling him to put the gun down but MacDonald loaded the gun again before he went into the house.. The officer followed him and heard two loud bangs and a woman screaming. He found the male occupant of the house bleeding heavily and grappling with the gunman.
He said the woman was trying to get him off her husband and struck the intruder with a metal toilet holder. The inspector said his colleague used a Taser on MacDonald and he struck him with a baton.
Mr MacKenzie told the court that he disarmed MacDonald of the gun after he was shot. He said he found his wife with her face covered in blood and a towel around her head after she was shot.
He said his wife said they needed to go into the bathroom and lock the door. He said: "I said 'don't worry, he will shoot me in the back once and I will take the gun off him'."
He said he lay on top of his wife to protect and then he suffered a gunshot to his back. He said: "|The struggle for the gun occurred after that."
"When I got up to tackle him Fay would have been on the floor of the shower. My thought was if I had the gun underneath he couldn't get to it," he said. He then heard calls of "shots fired" before police used a Taser.
Mr MacKenzie said as soon as he saw the gun he knew the shooter had one shot and then he could disarm him. He agreed that his view of the weapon was mistaken when he was told that it was a pump action shotgun.
The shooting victim was taken to hospital in Inverness and underwent several operations. He lost a kidney and sustained other injuries in the shooting which left him critically ill and in need of emergency surgery..
Mr MacKenzie said he previously had two treatment sessions with MacDonald who contacted him complaining of chest pain and respiratory problems and had been off work for a year.
Shain Westerman, a friend of MacDonald, said: "He (MacDonald) said he was going to sort out John Don and when he did he was going to go out in a blaze of glory."
Mr Westerman said he thought he had been watching too many cowboy films and was talking "a lot of sh---".
The court heard that MacDonald got a firearms certificate 15 months before the fatal shooting and amassed a collection of six shotguns, with his most recent purchase being the pump action shotgun he bought in June along with 1000 rounds of ammunition.
MacDonald claimed that wrestling with his wife had sparked off the events that occured and told police that he "completely messed up".
He told detectives: "That's what started a really black sequence of events, just really total darkness."
He said that after his wife "pretty much said she didn't want me any more" he spent the night pleading and crying trying to convince her against that and telling her he would do anything it took to save the marriage.
He said that in the morning his wife started wrestling with him after he showed her a photo of the messages on his phone. He said: "We were wrestling and then the knife got picked up" and then there was "a moment of madness".
He said he left after taking his shotgun and ammo box and added: "I didn't know what I was going to do but I felt total darkness."
"I started thinking about who had brought me to this point. That's when I started thinking about the osteopath who injured me and my brother-in-law who battered me years ago, who had always bullied and been aggressive to me."
He said he went to Mr MacKinnon's house and confronted him. "He moved towards me and I had taken the gun out of the car. As he moved towards me I just pulled the trigger," he said.
He claimed that he then drove to the home of Mr MacKenzie because he "just wanted to basically know what he had done to me".
