Woman shot in face feared she and husband would die during Skye shooting

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A woman has told a court she feared she and her husband were going to die after an alleged gunman shot him at “point blank” range on the Isle of Skye.

Fay MacKenzie said she and her husband fell over but her husband then “rose up” and took the gun off the man. She also told the court how moments earlier the man waited for her as she came in from the patio holding her cereal bowl and shot her through a window, hitting her in the face.

Finlay MacDonald, 41, is on trial accused of murdering his brother-in-law, John MacKinnon, and the attempted murder of three other people, including his wife on August 10 2022, all of which he denies. It is alleged that he repeatedly discharged a shotgun at Mr MacKinnon and murdered him in the island's village of Teangue that day.

He is also accused of firing a shotgun at married couple, Fay MacKenzie and John MacKenzie, and attempting to murder them in the village of Dornie, Wester Ross, on the same day. He also denies attempting to murder his wife, Rowena, by repeatedly stabbing her in the village of Tarskavaig, on Skye’s Sleat peninsula that day.

Mrs MacKenzie told the High Court in Edinburgh that she was eating cereal on her patio when she became aware of shouting on the morning of August 10 2022 and, when she went round the house to investigate, saw a man holding a “long thin gun” at his side. She heard people shouting at her to get back inside so she did so and described how the man then shot her through the glass window.

Mrs MacKenzie told the court: “I went back to the patio still holding my bowl of cereal. I went in and he was pointing the gun at me, he was waiting for me and he shot me in the face. He was standing there pointing the gun at me when I came in through the patio door.”

Advocate depute Liam Ewing KC asked how many times she was shot.

She replied: “One shot, I can’t remember hearing the bang, I was on the couch, I thought it’s not good, he must have got the top of my head. He must have shot me twice. My eyes were full of blood.”

Mrs MacKenzie described how she fled to the bathroom, the only room in the house with a lock on the door, and put a towel on her head to staunch the blood.

Her husband, John MacKenzie, whom she referred to as John Don, arrived but she then saw the alleged gunman in the corridor.

She said: “I looked over John’s shoulder and the man was standing there, dark, tall. He was in the corridor which is about two feet wide. He shot John Don at point blank range and we both fell down onto the shower area. He was standing there, the man, and I thought, this is it, this is us going to be killed but then my husband rose up and took the gun off the man.

“I could not see how he did it but he ran out, he must have pulled it off him.”

Mrs MacKenzie said she then grabbed a “hefty” metal toilet roll holder and used it to hit the man on the head a couple of times, then stopped when she heard a voice say “that will do” and realised that police were there.

The court heard that her husband was flown to hospital by air ambulance while she was treated at Broadford Hospital in Skye and still has pellets in her face and scalp which she said can feel tender. Finlay MacDonald also faces a charge of possession of a shotgun “with intent by means thereof to endanger life”, on August 10 2022, which he denies.

He 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. The trial continues in front of Judge Lady Drummond.

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