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

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

Lyn-Anne MacKinnon, 45, a mother-of-six, gave evidence on commission and said when she saw Finlay MacDonald’s car pull into her driveway, she believed it was his wife Rowena, having been told her brother could not drive due to a back injury.

MacDonald, 41, denies murdering his brother-in-law John MacKinnon on August 10 2022 by repeatedly discharging 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, at a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

MacDonald launched a special defence against the murder charge, claiming his “ability to determine or control his conduct was substantially impaired by reason of abnormality of mind”.

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

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

The court heard the MacKinnons arrived back on Skye on August 9, following 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 “tearing” up the driveway at the family home in the village of Teangue on the island’s Sleat peninsula.

She said she initially believed it was Mrs MacDonald driving when she recognised the car and told the court she believed it would be to disclose the extent of the couple’s marital problems, which her brother had told her of in mid-July.

Mrs MacKinnon said she got up at about 8.50am and went out 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 neighbour with some DIY.

She said: “I heard a car tearing straight up the drive and parked at the gable end of the house there. When I was looking through the back windscreen, I recognised the car as being Finlay’s car. He told us he was no longer able to drive.

“I actually thought it was Rowena as she occasionally used his car. I thought Rowena was coming to tell me what was going on between the two of them. I carried on lifting things, thinking ‘she will come over and chat to me’. As I pulled out of the car I realised very quickly it wasn’t her and it was Finlay. By that stage he was walking up the back steps.

I caught John in my arms - he was collapsing and groaning - and gently lowered him to the ground

“When I looked up, I could see he was holding a gun at the side. I just said ‘Finlay, what do you think you’re doing?’. I didn’t get any response. The inner doors were wide open. He just walked into the house and as I did four or five steps from the car to the door I’d already heard bangs.

“So, when I got into the utility room I scuffed past Finlay – he walked past me and walked out to his car. I walked into find John at that point still upright, groaning. I started screaming and screaming.

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

She became emotional as she said: “John was standing in front of kitchen sink. His innards were all hanging out.”

Mrs MacKinnon said she shouted at her children to call an ambulance, but recalled seeing one blue-lighted past the house, and the family were given medical advice on the phone by emergency services while some of the children sought help from a GP who lived locally, who attended.

Prosecutor Liam Ewing KC said: “Paramedics arrived after that. After their arrival, a decision was taken that nothing could be done for your husband.”

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

Giving evidence, she said MacDonald had worked on the Queen Mary II after nautical college and she had urged him to seek advice about his moods but was told “he couldn’t do anything about that because of his job, his career was over, he wouldn’t be allowed out to sea again”.

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

MacDonald denies attempting to murder his wife Rowena MacDonald by allegedly repeatedly stabbing her 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 Mrs MacDonald was “fairly motionless” when he arrived and he saw “three small heads” when he entered the house, having been informed there may be a gun cabinet, the court heard.

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

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

The trial continues in front of Judge Lady Drummond.