Man on trial accused of murdering brother-in-law and attempting to kill wife and two others

A man accused of murdering his brother-in-law launched a knife attack on his wife after he discovered messages on her phone with a work colleague, a court has heard.

Rowena MacDonald, 34, said her husband Finlay MacDonald was “upset and angry”.

“He thought I was having an affair,” she said.

She told the High Court in Edinburgh: “He kept saying, ‘What’s this. What’s going on?’.”

The mother-of-four said she was getting ready to leave for work at the family home in Skye when she discovered he had taken pictures with his phone of messages on her mobile from a colleague.

She said it probably did come across as “a little flirty” but she was not looking for a relationship with him and regarded him as a friend.

Advocate depute Liam Ewing KC asked if at the time they were just friends or more than friends and she replied: “Just friends.”

She said she told her husband: “I said I wasn’t in any other relationship with anybody. He did seem to momentarily settle and put his phone in his pocket but it was shortly after he pulled out his knife from his pocket and started stabbing me.”

She said MacDonald unfolded the knife and began using it to attack her. She was asked where he stabbed her and replied: “Everywhere he could.”

She said: “I was absolutely terrified. It just kept coming and coming.

“I screamed. The children came to the door from the living room and saw it.”

She tried to escape but said her husband followed her and stabbed her in the back and she found the rear door of the property locked.

The attack continued and she said she was bleeding a lot but managed to get outside.

She made a 999 call and her daughter, who was eight, followed her outside and took over, with the handler telling the child to keep speaking to her mother.

Her husband drove off and paramedics and police arrived at the house before she was taken by air ambulance to hospital in Glasgow.

She said at the time of the attack, her husband, a marine engineer, was off work.

She said their relationship was not in a good place and she was planning to move out of the then family home.

MacDonald, 41, is accused of attempting to murder his wife at an address in the village of Tarskavaig on the Isle of Skye on August 10, 2022, by struggling with her and repeatedly stabbing her on the body with a knife to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement, impairment and danger of her life.

He is also accused of murdering his brother-in-law John MacKinnon at his home in the Skye village of Teangue on the same day after repeatedly discharging a shotgun at him and striking him on the body.

He is accused of attempting to murder Fay MacKenzie at her home in the mainland Ross-shire village of Dornie on the same date by repeatedly firing a shotgun at her, striking her on the head and body to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of her life.

He is also charged with attempting to murder John MacKenzie at the same address in Dornie on the same day by discharging a shotgun at him, striking him on the body to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life.

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

MacDonald has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has lodged a special defence to the murder charge maintaining that at the time his ability to determine or control his conduct was substantially impaired by abnormality of mind.

The trial before judge Lady Drummond continues.