A trial date has been set for a man accused of the shotgun murder of his brother-in-law in an alleged shooting spree in the Highlands.
Finlay MacDonald is accused of murdering John MacKinnon, 47, at his home in Teangue, Skye, on August 10 last year by shooting him repeatedly.
He is also accused of attempting to murder his own wife, Rowena MacDonald, and two other people on the same day.
MacDonald’s lawyer, Shahid Latif, said the 40-year-old denies all the charges against him when the case called at the High Court in Glasgow on Thursday.
MacDonald is also alleged to have previously displayed “malice and ill will” towards Mr MacKinnon.
READ MORE: Man charged in connection with death of man found in flat
He is accused of having attempted to murder his wife the same day at her home in Tarskavaig, Skye, on the opposite side of the Sleat peninsula from Teangue.
MacDonald is alleged to have struggled with her and repeatedly stabbed her with a knife, causing severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and endangering her life.
Prosecutors allege he also attempted to murder John Donald MacKenzie and his wife Fay, both 63, on the same day, travelling some 30 miles from Skye to their home in Dornie, Wester Ross.
He is accused of shooting both to the body and Mrs MacKenzie to the head, allegedly causing severe injury, permanent disfigurement and endangering their lives.
He is also said to have shown previous ill-will towards Mr MacKenzie and is accused of causing him permanent impairment.
READ MORE: Council probe into standard of Amber Gibson's care before she died is underway
MacDonald is further accused of possessing a shotgun with “intent to endanger life”.
Prosecutors allege he travelled between the different properties while armed with the firearm and ammunition.
At the preliminary hearing in Glasgow, Lord Fairley set a trial date for May 14 next year at the same court.
A further preliminary hearing date was set for December 12.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article