Jury hears wife of murder accused was "scared of his angry outbursts"

The court also heard from MacDonald’s sister, Lyn-Anne MacKinnon, who said she saw her sibling walk into her family home with a gun before hearing shots.

Mrs MacKinnon, 45, said that after she heard the sounds of bangs she went into the house to find her wounded husband John as her brother Finlay MacDonald left without uttering a word.

She told the High Court in Edinburgh that she was getting items out of a car when she heard another vehicle come up the driveway.

She said: "I recognised the car as being Finlay’s car. He told us he was no longer able to drive." 

She said she initially thought it was her brother’s wife at the wheel of the vehicle coming to tell her "what was going on between the two of them".

"I realised it wasn’t her and it was Finlay. By that stage he was walking up the back steps. When I looked up, I glanced down and I could see he was holding a gun at his side."

"I said, ’Finlay what do you think you are doing?’. I didn’t get any response,"  she said. Her brother walked into the house and she followed.

She said: "As I walked up 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."

Mother-of-six, Mrs MacKinnon said she caught her husband in her arms as he was collapsing and said she gently lowered him to the floor. She said: "I was just screaming in horror."

Her children appeared and she was shouting for an ambulance to be called and to go and get a doctor.

She was asked if she saw her brother and replied: "We just sort of scuffed past each other in the utility room. He never uttered a word. He never said anything."

Advocate depute Liam Ewing KC asked her what the bangs were that she had heard and she replied: "Shots. I thought I had only heard two, but I believe it was three. I only saw evidence of two wounds."

Mrs MacKinnon said she was aware of a physical altercation between her husband and brother years before after she gave her sibling a birthday present which he threw back at her "in a rage".

 
She said she was heavily pregnant at the time and her husband was angry when he learned of it. But she thought they had got over their differences and were civil with each other on occasions when they were together.

MacDonald has also denied attempting to murder his wife Rowena on August 10 in 2022 at an address in the village of Tarskavaig, on the Isle of Skye, by struggling with her and repeatedly stabbing her on the body with a knife to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement and impairment and to the danger of her life.

He has also denied attempting to murder Fay MacKenzie on the same day at her home in Dornie by repeatedly firing a shotgun at her and striking her on the head and body to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of her life.

He also faces a further charge under the Firearms Act that on August 10 in 2022 at addresses in the Skye villages, at the house in Dornie and elsewhere he possessed a shotgun with intent to endanger life.

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

The trial before judge Lady Drummond continues.