Father guilty of murdering brother-in-law and stabbing wife in Isle of Skye shooting spree

Finlay MacDonald has been sentenced to life with a minimum of 28 years after he was found guilty of stabbing his wife nine times in a ‘frenzied’ attack before going on a shooting spree

Finlay MacDonald denies murder and attempted murder (PA) (PA Archive)

A father-of-four has been jailed for life for murdering his brother-in-law and attempting to kill three other people during a shooting spree in the Scottish Highlands.

Finlay MacDonald, 41, went on a violent rampage after seeing “flirty” messages on his wife’s phone in which she told her boss she was planning to leave him.

He stabbed his wife Rowena nine times, puncturing her lungs, before he killed his brother-in-law John MacKinnon with a shotgun in the attack on the Isle of Skye on 10 August 2022.

MacDonald then drove to the mainland village of Dornie, Wester Ross, and shot married couple Fay and John MacKenzie.

Judge Lady Drummond sentenced the father to life imprisonment and ordered him to spend a minimum of 28 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of carrying out the spree.

She said his crimes were “brutal and mindlessly violent” and perpetrated on victims “in their own homes, where they had no opportunity to escape”.

Giving evidence during the trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, Mrs MacDonald said the “frenzied” attack in their family home in the village of Tarskavaig, on Skye’s Sleat peninsula, punctured both her lungs and left her “squelching blood” with every breath she took.

Afterwards, he got into his car with a pump-action shotgun, a “couple of hundred” cartridges and a “machete-type” knife, and drove to his brother-in-law’s house in the nearby village of Teangue.

Mr MacKinnon’s sister, who was outside on the driveway, told the court she saw MacDonald with the gun as he walked into the house and heard “bangs” as he fired a number of times.

A GP who lived nearby attempted to save Mr MacKinnon, who suffered fatal injuries, but he died at the scene.

The court heard MacDonald had borne a grudge against his brother-in-law since the pair had a violent falling out in 2013.

Finlay MacDonald has been found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh (PA Archive)

MacDonald then drove to an address in Dornie in Wester Ross, on the mainland, where his osteopath John MacKenzie lived with his wife Fay. He claimed Mr MacKenzie had previously given him a treatment session which he said “ruined his life”.

After arriving, MacDonald shot Mrs MacKenzie in the face through the windows and then shot Mr MacKenzie twice, in his front and side, before being tasered and arrested by police who had trailed him to the property.

Mrs MacDonald, Mrs MacKenzie and Mr MacKenzie all survived their injuries, and gave evidence in court during the trial.

In a police interview the following day MacDonald said he stabbed his wife in a “moment of madness” and he then felt a “total darkness come over me”.

However he denied murdering his brother-in-law and attempting to murder to his wife and the Mackenzies, insisting he was suffering from an “abnormality of mind”. His lawyer argued he should be convicted of the lesser offence of culpable homicide.

On Friday, a jury returned a guilty verdict after three-and-a-half hours of deliberation. He was convicted of one count of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and one count of possession of a shotgun “with intent thereof to endanger life”.

The judge said all the surviving victims could have died from their wounds and she praised their actions and those of the emergency services.

Lady Drummond said Mrs MacDonald had suffered “devastating” physical and psychological harm, including six weeks in hospital, while Mr MacKenzie also spent six weeks in hospital, including in a critical condition, and needed to have a kidney removed.

The court heard MacDonald has been diagnosed with autism, however prosecutor Liam Ewing KC told the jury “he was fully in control of and able to determine his actions”.

Mr Ewing said the accused was not “significantly impaired” by any psychological condition on the day he carried out the attacks. This was shown, he said, by the “targeted, controlled behaviour” he displayed after stabbing his wife.

Mr Ewing told the jury that MacDonald had been able to get into a car with a shotgun and “400 cartridges”, drive to two different houses some miles apart and select his “victims”.

Defending, solicitor advocate Shahid Latif said of MacDonald: “He is sorry for what he did that day. He wishes he could undo and go back in time to try and stop himself.

“In particular he indicates he has failed his children. He wants them to know he is sorry.”