SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lady Drummond told MacDonald: “You have been convicted by this jury of 3 charges of attempted murder and one charge of murder.

The circumstances were that you awoke on 10 August 2022 believing something was wrong in your marriage. Using your wife’s pin to access her phone, you copied messages between her and another man stating she planned to leave you. After confronting her in the kitchen of your home, you took out a knife from your pocket and stabbed her in the stomach several times. When she tried desperately to escape you pursued her to the door stabbing her again on the back and again as she fell to the floor. You went outside to your car, loading it with a pump action shot gun, 400 cartridges and a machete style knife, before you went back to lock the gun cabinet. As you went back and forth to the house you walked past your wife who was lying bleeding outside and attempting to call emergency services, before you drove off.

The jury by their verdict rejected your claim that you were provoked into attacking your wife by reason of sexual infidelity.

You drove directly to the home of your brother in law, a journey of 17 minutes the majority of which was down a single track road. You arrived uninvited, parking your car within a few steps from the back door of the house. Ignoring your sister who was outside, you walked into the kitchen where you repeatedly shot John MacKinnon who was unable to defend himself. He suffered three gunshot wounds to his chest abdomen and thigh. The most significant of the wounds was to his chest from which he died at the scene. Mr MacKinnon’s family were home within the house.

You returned to your car and reloaded the gun. From there you drove to Dornie on the mainland, a journey of about 40 minutes, followed by two police cars. Turning off the main road, you sped up before parking at the bottom of the drive of the MacKenzie’s house. Mrs MacKenzie was outside and heard your arrival. She saw you with the gun by your side standing within two feet of the living room window. The police shouted to her to go inside and lock the doors. You waited for her to do that before aiming and shooting at her twice through the living room window. Your shots hit her in the face and head.  

You immediately went inside the MacKenzie house where you shot Mr MacKenzie, who was shielding his wife, once in the back. Mr MacKenzie managed to get the gun off you before police tasered and batoned you and very soon after the emergency services arrived.

The jury by their verdict decided that your ability to control or determine your behaviour on 10 August 2022 was not substantially impaired at the time of the shooting of Mr MacKinnon by reason of abnormality of mind. They rejected your position that your responsibility was reduced and convicted you of murder. 

There was evidence that you had bought the pump action shot gun and 1000 cartridges about 6 weeks before you used it and that you told others that, about the same time, you were going to kill or sort out Mr MacKenzie.

I have read victim impact statements by those affected by your crimes.

Rowena MacDonald suffered at least 9 stab wounds, and as she describes in her victim impact statement about 17, to her chest, abdomen and back, a build-up of blood and air in her chest and small wounds to her liver and kidney which were a danger to her life. She has permanent scarring. She describes being in hospital for 6 weeks, requiring to have operations and a subsequent hospital admission. Living with the scarring is a permanent reminder to her of the trauma of your attack. The attack has had a devastating impact on her physically and huge lasting emotional and psychological impact as described in her victim impact statement all of which I take into account.

Fay MacKenzie suffered multiple small wounds from gunshot pellets to her face, neck, chest and thumb of her right hand. Some of the pellets were removed under anaesthetic but others have been left in her face. She is left with permanent scarring on her cheek.

John Don MacKenzie was in a critical condition due to blood loss and required to undergo emergency surgery without which he would have died. He had a single large entry gunshot wound on his left side. He had his kidney removed along with 30 gunshot pellets from his abdomen. He had 100 gunshot pellets in his bowel and required a further operation to repair his bowel. When in hospital he had a blood clot in the lung, a life threatening condition, caused by his injuries and surgery. He was in hospital for over 6 weeks.  

John MacKinnon’s, wife, sister and children’s victim impact statements are heart breaking to read. The event so scarring it has left them angry, shocked, sad and in deep anguish. A loving husband, brother and a wonderful father, the last two years have been unimaginably difficult for them, they miss and grieve for him daily. They feel they have lost the life and soul of their family and that their lives will never be what they once were.

Mitigation

I have taken into account what has been said on your behalf by Mr Latif. You are 41 years old and have no criminal record. You are a father of four children. You had a difficult childhood but have been in secure employment, latterly as a marine engineer, though you had to stop work due to illness.  You have expressed remorse.

Although the jury rejected diminished responsibility, your mental and physical health is still a mitigating feature when it comes to sentencing. Your mental health is linked to your offending and is part of your circumstances. I heard extensive evidence about that. You have long standing back pain, and lung and breathing difficulties. Psychiatrists and psychologists gave evidence that you have Autism Spectrum Disorder, Anxiety and Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and traits of paranoid and dependent personality disorder. You do not suffer from any impairment to your intellectual functioning.

Sentence

In deciding on the sentence in this case, I take into account all the circumstances including the seriousness of the offences, the impact on your victims and others affected, and your own circumstances. Sentences should be no more severe than is necessary to achieve the sentencing purposes. 

You carried out a series of brutal and mindlessly violent attacks with a knife and pump action shotgun within a matter of hours. What began with a frenzied persistent attack with a knife on your wife continued with you deliberately targeting those you bore longstanding grudges against, shooting at them at close range within their own homes where they had no opportunity to defend themselves or escape. That Rowena MacDonald, Fay MacKenzie and John Don MacKenzie are alive today is down to their own actions, the bravery and responsiveness of police, particularly local Portree police, the emergency services in reaching them and the medical professionals who treated them. The outcome for each was as likely to have been fatal. For them and the family of John MacKinnon life will never be the same again.

For charge 2, murder, the punishment is fixed by law.  You will be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The punishment part is the period of time you will serve in prison before being considered for parole.  In fixing the punishment part, I must reflect the need to punish you for the crime of murder and to deter you and others from committing murder.  The law requires me to ignore any risk that you may pose to the public in the future.

I must take account of the seriousness of the crime of murder of which you have been convicted and also the other offences that you have been convicted of, which are of themselves very serious: I deal with those other offences as follows:

For charge 1, you will go to jail for 9 years,

For charge 3, you will go to jail for 10 years,

For charge 4, you will go to jail for 11 years,  

The sentences for charge 1, 3, and 4 are consecutive to each other. However, a sentence of 30 years for these 3 charges is excessive and overall I consider a sentence of 20 years appropriate for those charges.

That overall sentence of 20 years on charges 1, 3 and 4 is to be served concurrently with, ie at the same time as, the murder charge and backdated to 12 August 2022.

Having regard to the whole circumstances, I fix the punishment part for the murder charge, charge 2, as 20 years. I increase the punishment part to take account of the other charges of attempted murder. The increase is limited to that part of those sentences attributable to retribution, deterrence and the loss of the possibility of early release.  I increase the punishment part of 20 years by a further 8 years. The punishment part on the life sentence for murder is therefore 28 years, backdated to 12 August 2022.

This does not mean that this is a sentence of 28 years.  You are sentenced to life imprisonment and you will serve at least 28 years before you can be considered for release on parole. It will be for the Parole Board to determine when you will ultimately be released and they will consider the safety of the public in reaching that decision. The question of parole cannot arise before the punishment part has passed.”

29 November 2024