Skye gunman loses bid to appeal against murder conviction

Finlay MacDonald, 41, was ordered to serve a minimum of 28 years behind bars when he was sentenced in November.

PA Media

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Crime

A man jailed for murdering his brother-in-law and attempting to kill three other people during a shotgun rampage has been refused leave to appeal against his conviction.

Finlay MacDonald, 41, carried out the spree of violence on the Isle of Skye and the Scottish mainland on August 10, 2022.

The attacks began that morning when the father-of-four repeatedly stabbed his wife Rowena at their home in Taskarvaig on the island’s Sleat peninsula.

He then drove to his brother-in-law John MacKinnon’s house in the nearby village of Teangue and shot him, leaving him with fatal injuries.

A GP who lived nearby attempted to save Mr MacKinnon but he died at the scene.

After murdering Mr MacKinnon, MacDonald then drove to the house in Dornie in Wester Ross, on the mainland, where his osteopath John MacKenzie lived with his wife Fay and shot them both.

He was jailed for life and ordered to spend a minimum of 28 years behind bars when he was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh in November last year.

His lawyers later indicated MacDonald intended to appeal against his conviction.

However court officials confirmed on Thursday that MacDonald’s appeal against conviction had been refused at second sift – a legal process where judges decide whether an appeal can proceed.

Sentencing MacDonald in November, Judge Lady Drummond said his crimes were “brutal and mindlessly violent” and perpetrated on victims “in their own homes, where they had no opportunity to escape”.