The sister of Skye’s alleged shooter “tried to save her husband’s life,” the court heard

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

Lyn-Anne MacKinnon, 45, mother of six, gave commissioned evidence and said when she saw Finlay MacDonald’s car pull into her driveway she thought it was his wife Rowena, after being told her brother could not drive due to an accident. back injury.

MacDonald, 41, denies killing his brother-in-law John MacKinnon on August 10, 2022, by repeatedly firing a shotgun at him.

He also denies three charges of attempted murder on the same day, including an osteopath he allegedly blamed for a back injury, and a stabbing attack on his wife Rowena MacDonald, 34, during a trial 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 was significantly impaired by an abnormal mind.”

Mrs MacKinnon, who was widowed on August 10 when her husband John was reportedly shot as he stood at the kitchen sink, recalled being a “mother hen” to her two younger brothers, Finlay and Neil, when they were growing up in what the family would become MacDonald’s. at home on Skye.

She told the court she had been married to John MacKinnon for 15 years and “didn’t know anything was wrong” between her husband and her brother.

The court heard that the MacKinnons returned to Skye on August 9, after a holiday in Glasgow, and on August 10 Mrs MacKinnon was unpacking the car to take her adult daughter and baby to an appointment when she heard a car ‘tear apart’. driveway at the family home in the village of Teangue on the island’s Sleat Peninsula.

She said she initially thought it was Mrs MacDonald driving when she recognized the car and told the court she thought this might be to reveal the extent of the couple’s marital problems, which her brother had told her about in mid-July .

Mrs MacKinnon said she got up around 8.50am and went to the driveway in her dressing gown to unpack luggage, while her husband, a distillery worker, made himself breakfast shortly before he planned to help a neighbor with some chores.

She said: “I heard a car drive straight into the driveway and park at the front of the house. When I looked out the rear window, I recognized the car as Finlay’s car. He told us he couldn’t drive anymore.

“I actually thought it was Rowena because she used his car every now and then. I thought Rowena would come and tell me what was going on between the two of them. I kept lifting things up and thinking, ‘She’ll come over and talk to me.’ When I got out of the car I quickly realized it wasn’t her and it was Finlay. At that moment he walked up the back stairs.

“When I looked up I saw he was holding a gun on the side. I just said ‘Finlay, what do you think you’re doing?’. I got no response. The interior doors were wide open. He just walked into the house and as I took four or five steps from the car to the door, I heard a bang.

“So when I came into the utility room I brushed past Finlay – he walked past me and walked to his car. I walked in and found John still erect at that moment, groaning. I started screaming and shouting.

“My son came running in, I think he might have seen him. At that moment I picked John up in my arms – he collapsed and groaned – and gently lowered him to the ground.”

She became emotional as she said: “John was standing in front of the counter. His intestines were all hanging out.”

Mrs MacKinnon said she shouted at her children to call an ambulance, but recalled seeing one with a blue light passing by the house, and the family received medical advice from emergency services over the phone, with some children seeking help from a general practitioner who lived nearby. , who was present.

Prosecutor Liam Ewing KC said: “Paramedics then arrived. After their arrival it was decided that nothing more could be done for your husband.’

Mrs MacKinnon said an “altercation” occurred between her husband and her brother in July 2013 when she tried to give MacDonald a birthday present which he “threw back at me in anger” while she was heavily pregnant, which was witnessed by her children, heard the court.

In evidence she said MacDonald had worked on the Queen Mary II after maritime school and she had urged him to seek advice about his mood but was told there was nothing he could do about it because of his job, his career was over, he would not be allowed to go to sea again.”

She said MacDonald contacted her in mid-July 2022 after an 18-month estrangement and told her about the back injury and marital problems, the court heard.

MacDonald denies trying to kill his wife Rowena MacDonald by stabbing her repeatedly on August 10, 2022.

A police officer who attended the MacDonalds’ home in the aftermath of the alleged stabbing found a “small child crawling towards me with blood on her knees”, the court heard.

Sergeant Ian Carr, 46, said Ms MacDonald was “fairly motionless” when he arrived and that he saw “three little heads” when he entered the house after being told there might be a gun cupboard, the court heard .

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

The court heard that MacDonald denied charges of attempting to murder a couple, Fay and John Don MacKenzie, during an alleged shooting in the village of Dornie, Wester Ross, on the Scottish mainland on the same day.

The trial continues in the presence of Judge Lady Drummond.