A person who went on a lethal capturing spree within the Scottish Highlands intends to attraction his conviction and sentence.

Warning: This text comprises particulars readers might discover distressing

Finlay MacDonald, 41, was final week jailed for at the least 28 years for murdering his brother-in-law and making an attempt to kill three different individuals in August 2022.

MacDonald repeatedly stabbed his spouse, Rowena MacDonald, 34, throughout an assault at their residence on the Isle of Skye and left her mendacity drenched in her personal blood on the driveway in entrance of their younger youngsters.

MacDonald then drove to his sister’s residence on the opposite aspect of the Sleat peninsula, the place he fatally shot his brother-in-law John MacKinnon, 47.

The killer’s sister, Lyn-Anne MacKinnon, 45, informed a court docket her husband’s “innards have been all hanging out” following the assault.

MacDonald then set off for the mainland and the village of Dornie, Wester Ross, the place he shot married couple Fay and John MacKenzie earlier than being apprehended.

The occasions came about on 10 August 2022.

MacDonald denied all prices and claimed he was affected by an abnormality of thoughts on the time.

Nevertheless, he was discovered responsible following a trial on the Excessive Court docket in Edinburgh and was handed a life sentence on Friday.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) has now confirmed it has been notified MacDonald intends to attraction each his conviction and sentence.

Throughout MacDonald’s trial, his spouse defined how the couple’s relationship “was not in a superb place” on the time of the incident and she or he had been planning to maneuver out.

Jurors have been informed MacDonald confronted his spouse over messages on her cellphone to her male boss, the place she had mentioned the ending of their marriage and mentioned “this may’t come quickly sufficient now”.

Though Mrs MacDonald claimed her colleague was merely a buddy, MacDonald produced a knife from his pocket and launched right into a frenzied assault.

Mrs MacDonald informed the court docket: “Each lungs had been punctured – with each breath I took I used to be brazenly squelching blood.”

The couple’s younger youngsters helped to maintain their mom aware on the residence in Tarskavaig till emergency providers arrived and airlifted her to the Queen Elizabeth College Hospital in Glasgow.

When ultimately interviewed by police, MacDonald claimed he had suffered a “second of insanity”.

He defined he “did not know” what he was going to do when he bought into his automobile with a shotgun, “a few hundred” cartridges and a knife, however that he started eager about grievances along with his brother-in-law and osteopath.

The court docket heard that he had “sufficient ammunition to start out a small warfare”.

Jurors have been informed of how an alleged assault by the hands of Mr MacKinnon in 2013 was the start of MacDonald’s “issues”.

Mrs MacKinnon defined the “altercation” between her husband and brother occurred after MacDonald threw a birthday reward again at her “in a rage” whereas she was closely pregnant, which was reportedly witnessed by her youngsters.

MacDonald was mentioned to have felt humiliated and left with low vanity following the incident.

On the day of the capturing, MacDonald arrived at Mr MacKinnon’s residence in Teangue the place he was mentioned to have confronted the distillery employee over being “bullied”.

MacDonald claimed his brother-in-law “got here in direction of” him, so he shot him.

Mrs MacKinnon, who had noticed her youthful brother enter the household residence with a gun earlier than listening to the blasts, tried to avoid wasting her husband’s life.

MacDonald then travelled to the house of osteopath Mr MacKenzie, who he had beforehand visited for remedy of a again harm which had seen him signed off work sick.

The court docket heard how MacDonald turned obsessive about suing Mr MacKenzie, also referred to as John Don, over the remedy which he claimed left him in “persistent ache” and took his “life possibilities away”.

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The court docket heard how MacDonald shot Mrs MacKenzie via the home window.

She fled to the lavatory and was joined by her husband earlier than MacDonald arrived.

Mrs MacKenzie mentioned: “He shot John Don at level clean vary and we each fell down onto the bathe space.

“He was standing there, the person, and I assumed, that is it, that is us going to be killed however then my husband rose up and took the gun off the person.”

Mrs MacKenzie then grabbed a “hefty” metallic rest room roll holder and used it to hit MacDonald till the police arrived.

The court docket heard on the time of the occasions, MacDonald had undiagnosed autism spectrum dysfunction, character dysfunction, post-traumatic stress dysfunction and was experiencing low temper and nervousness.

Choose Girl Drummond described his crimes as “brutal and mindlessly violent” and perpetrated on victims “in their very own houses, the place that they had no alternative to flee”.

In an announcement learn out by police following the decision, Mr MacKinnon’s two sisters mentioned: “It ought to by no means be forgotten that John was defenceless on the time of his homicide, when he was inhumanely shot thrice in his own residence, whereas making breakfast for his youngsters – murdered by Finlay MacDonald, whose callous and cowardly actions have traumatised all these concerned.

“There is no such thing as a place in society for such a harmful particular person.”