AN OSTEOPATH has told of the moment he shielded his wounded wife after a murder accused allegedly turned up at their remote cottage and fired at them with a shotgun.
John MacKenzie and wife Fay were allegedly targeted because Finlay MacDonald blamed Mr MacKenzie for his back woes.
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He told the jury that he ran in the back door of his home and found his wife “covered in blood” after she was allegedly blasted in the face and head.
The witness said that the couple ran into the bathroom and Mr MacKenzie shielded his wife from MacDonald before the 41-year-old allegedly blasted him in the back.
Choking back tears he told the court: “I had been feeding my pigs at the back of the house and then I heard someone shout ‘put the weapon down’.
“I walked round to the front of the house and saw Finlay MacDonald standing at the front of my home with a shotgun.
“I ran into the house through the back door and met my wife in the hall.
“She was covered in blood and had a towel wrapped around her head.
“We got into the bathroom and I shielded her. I told her that he only had one shot left and that he would shoot me in the back and that after that I would take the gun off him.
“Moments later my wife said to me ‘there’s the man’ and then he shot me.
“My wife and I fell into the shower but I got up and grabbed the gun.
“I then fell to the floor and had the gun underneath me so Finlay couldn’t get it.
“I heard someone shout ‘shots fired’ and then police and paramedics came in.” MacDonald was tasered by officers who had arrived before being arrested.
The court heard how Mr MacKenzie lost a Kidney and had to have thirty centimetres of his bowel removed following the alleged attack.
He spent two months in hospital recovering before being released.
Last week the trial heard how MacDonald told his wife, Rowena, who is accused of attempting to murder that he was going to “kill” Mr MacKenzie as he blamed him for making a back injury worse.
The physician’s wife told the court how she walked into the couple’s living room and MacDonald shot her twice from just “feet” away.
“I went round the side of the house and saw a man standing with a gun.”
In her evidence the 65-year-old said: “I was having my breakfast when I heard shouting.
“I went round the side of the house and saw a man standing with a gun.
There were police officers at the bottom of my driveway who told me to get inside.
“As I walked into the living room the man shot me in the face, head and body.
“He was just a few feet away from me. He saw me and was waiting for me coming into the room.
“He shot me through the glass. When my husband and I got into the bathroom he was covering me with his body and the man shot him at point-blank range.
“When the police arrived there were officers with guns and I told them ‘you are too late’.”
“John rose up and grabbed the gun and the two of them fell to the ground.
“I picked up a hefty toilet roll holder and started hitting the man on the head and face.
“When the police arrived there were officers with guns and I told them ‘you are too late’.”
The court was told that MacDonald instructed lawyers to sue Mr MacKenzie after he had two appointments with him.
After his pain got worse he then blamed the medic for this.
“I ran into the house through the back door and met my wife in the hall. She was covered in blood and had a towel wrapped around her head.”
His counsel Donald Findlay KC said to Mr MacKenzie: “He became fixated on you as he believes you caused the damage to his back.”
MacDonald is accused of attempting to kill his wife at Tarskavaig, Skye, then allegedly going on a shooting spree the same day that left his brother-in-law John MacKinnon, 47, dead and John and Fay MacKenzie, both 65, seriously injured in August 2022.
MacDonald denies the charges and claims that at the time of the murder, his conduct was substantially impaired by abnormality of mind.
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He has pled not guilty to using a shotgun to murder Mr MacKinnon at Teangue, Skye, and also denies attempting to murder the Mackenzies on the mainland at Dornie, Wester Ross, by shooting them.
The trial before Judge Lady Drummond continues.
