A murder accused had “a focused plan” to target specific individuals who in his autistic mind were the cause of his difficulties, a court heard today.
A clinical psychologist said Finlay MacDonald was a man who had decided to get to the bottom of his problem and was no longer going to be a victim.
Dr Harry Wood said his behaviour was consistent with an individual focused on himself and his own plan and was not displaying the usual degree of empathy.
Defence counsel Donald Findlay KC said to the psychologist that MacDonald went armed with one of his guns and “really enough ammunition to start a small war” to the home of his brother-in-law John MacKinnon and shot him.
Accused denies murder
The psychologist told the High Court in Edinburgh at the time of the alleged murder MacDonald was affected by autism and post-traumatic stress disorder with depression, anxiety and a personality disorder in the background.
Marine engineer MacDonald, 41, has denied murdering his distillery worker brother-in-law on August 10 in 2022 by shooting him at his family home at Teangue, on the Isle of Skye.
Mr MacKinnon’s wife, Lyn-Anne MacKinnon, said her brother walked into their home carrying a shotgun and she heard the sound of gunshots.
In evidence, she said: “As I walked 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.”
Accused of attempted murders
MacDonald has also denied attempting to murder his wife Rowena, 34, at their family home at Tarskavaig on Skye earlier on the same date by repeatedly stabbing her.
The mother-of-four told the jury she was getting ready to leave for work when the alleged attack began.
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 get away but said her husband followed her and stabbed her in the back and she found the rear door of the property locked.
Complaints over back treatment
Mrs MacDonald described life with her husband and said he believed that his back pain was much worse following his treatment by retired osteopath John Donald MacKenzie.
He has also denied attempting to murder Mr MacKenzie and his wife Fay, both 65, on the same day at their home in the village of Dornie, in Ross-shire, by discharging a shotgun at them.
On day four of the trial, Mr MacKenzie told the jury that he was lying on top of his wife to protect her when MacDonald opened fire and shot him in the back.
He said: “I lay on top of her to protect her and then he shot me in the back. The struggle for the gun occurred after that. I got up, took the gun off him.”
He said: “When I got up to tackle him Fay would have been on the floor in the shower. My thought was if I had the gun underneath he couldn’t get it”.
He has lodged a special defence maintaining that at the time of the alleged offence his ability to determine and control his conduct was substantially impaired by abnormality of mind.
The trial continues.