A man accused of murdering his brother-in-law has claimed he was attacked by the alleged victim nine years earlier, sparking all his problems.

Finlay MacDonald said he was humiliated and left with low self-esteem after John MacKinnon assaulted him in 2013 and his father had to step in to stop him from being beaten.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard MacDonald told a psychiatrist: “That was the start of it all. Something happened in my mind that day.

He told Dr Suraj Shenoy: “The beginning of all my problems was John MacKinnon attacking me in 2013.”

The psychiatrist told the court: “He said that since that incident in 2013 he had tried to avoid any contact with his brother-in-law.”

John MacKinnon (pictured) was shot dead by a gunman on August 10, 2022. His brother-in-law Finlay MacDonald is charged with murder

Finlay MacDonald said he was humiliated and left with low self-esteem after John MacKinnon assaulted him in 2013 and his father had to step in to stop him from being beaten. John MacKinnon (pictured) was the father of six children

MacDonald is also charged with the attempted murder of his wife Rowena MacDonald, 32, who suffered “serious” stab wounds in an attack at her home.

The trial heard that a psychiatrist concluded that MacDonald suffered from autism spectrum disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the alleged murder on August 10, 2022.

In the background were depression with anxiety and paranoid and dependent personality disorder.

MacDonald denied killing a distillery worker, Mr MacKinnon, at his home in Teangue, on the Isle of Skye, by shooting him with a shotgun.

He entered a special defense to the charge of murder, alleging that, at the time, his ability to determine and control his conduct was substantially impaired by a mental abnormality.

The 41-year-old also denied trying to kill his wife Rowena, 34, at her home in the village of Tarskavaig on Skye on the same day by fighting her and stabbing her repeatedly with a knife.

John and Fay MacKenzie said in a lawsuit that they were shot in their Highlands home during the alleged shooting in August 2022

Police at the scene of the incident in Tarskavaig, a village on the west coast of Sleat on the Isle of Skye in Scotland

MacDonald also denied trying to kill retired osteopath John MacKenzie and his wife Fay, both 65, at their home in Dornie, Ross-shire, by firing a shotgun at them.

The court heard MacDonald told Dr Sujay: “I was depending on my ex-wife to make all the decisions at home but she let me down.”

Donald Findlay KC, defending, said: “The triggering event appears to have been his wife’s betrayal as he saw it.”

The trial before Judge Lady Drummond continues.