Wife of Skye murder accused tells court he attacked her with a knife

The wife of a man accused of a shooting spree on Skye told how he launched a frenzied knife attack which punctured both her lungs after confronting her about messages to another man, a court heard.

Rowena MacDonald, 34, a mother of four, told how she was drenched in her own blood and feared her husband was going to run her over, as her eldest children spoke to emergency services, after the alleged attack on August 10, at a home on Skye which had belonged to her husband’s grandparents.

The couple’s children, now aged 11 years old, eight years old, six years old, and four years old, helped keep their mother conscious until emergency services airlifted her to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, the court heard.

Finlay MacDonald, 41, is accused of a shooting spree on August 10, 2022, in which he allegedly murdered his brother-in-law John MacKinnon, after allegedly repeatedly discharging a shotgun at him, in the village of Teangue on the island’s Sleat peninsula.

He is also accused attempting to murder his wife by repeatedly stabbing her on the same day in the village of Tarskavaig, on the same peninsula.

MacDonald is further accused of attempting to murder a married couple, Fay MacKenzie and John MacKenzie, during an alleged shooting spree in the village of Dornie, Wester Ross, on the mainland in the Highlands.

He is also charged with possession of a shotgun “with intent thereof to endanger life”, at the properties in the charges on August 10 2022.

He denies all the charges and has lodged 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”, and a judge said he could be convicted of an alternative charge of culpable homicide if the jury believed his defence of diminished responsibility.

Giving evidence at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday, Mrs MacDonald, originally from Somerset, said the couple married in 2015 and moved to Skye where her husband’s family lived, however, she was planning to move out at the time of the alleged attack.

She agreed that at the time of the attacks their relationship “was not in a good place” and said that MacDonald was off work with a back injury, and had not been involved in a family holiday to England in July 2022, the court heard.

The jury was shown photographs of the house including play equipment, and a home gym with barbells where cartridges could be seen on top of a cabinet, and blood spatters were on a door beside children’s paintings.

Mrs MacDonald said that at the time of the alleged attacks, she had “contacted support services and was on the housing list” but, on August 9, her husband “attempted intimacy with me having not been for a long time”, the court heard.

Giving evidence, she said she did not reciprocate and she felt he was “disappointed”, but on the morning of August 10, he followed her into the bedroom as she got ready for work.

Mrs MacDonald said: “He said he needed to talk to me about us and about our relationship”, however in the kitchen he “pulled out his phone and he had taken pictures of my phone”.

She told the court she had a male friend at work but they were “just friends”, and her colleague “realised I needed support” but that they had engaged in a text conversation about “what we looked for in other people”.

The court heard that a photograph was found on MacDonald’s phone which said: “Major blow up with Finlay he knows it’s coming and wants to do anything he can to stop it. This can’t come soon enough now.”

She replied to another message saying she liked a “tall dark and handsome man”.

However, MacDonald saw the messages and was “upset and angry”, and said “what’s going on?”, the court heard.

Mrs MacDonald told the court: “When I tried to explain that I wasn’t in a relationship with anyone else, he did seem to momentarily settle.”

MacDonald then “took a knife from his pocket” and launched a frenzied attack on her with it, she said.

Mrs MacDonald told the court: “Both lungs had been punctured with every breath I took I was openly squelching blood.”

She said that she dialled 999 and rapidly became weaker.

Giving evidence she said: “My daughter had followed me outside, when she approached me the last movement I could make was pushing my phone towards her on the ground.

“I remember telling them it was him but I don’t remember if I told them or they asked.”

She said that her eight-year-old daughter was on speakerphone to emergency services, while her youngest child, who had just turned two years old, pulled at her hair, saying, ‘mummy, mummy stop it’.

Mrs MacDonald told the court she saw her husband walk towards a car carrying  a “tall box” and feared that he would run her over as she lay on the edge of the driveway.

An air ambulance took her to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, the court heard.

The trial continues in front of Judge Lady Drummond.