he spouse of a person accused of homicide has mentioned her husband’s poor well being means he’s a “strolling lifeless man” and that he has arrange a don’t resuscitate order, a court docket heard.
Rosemary MacDowell was giving proof into the trial of her husband, William MacDowell, on the Excessive Court docket in Inverness.
The 80-year-old, from Penrith, Cumbria, is accused of murdering his son, three-year-old Andrew MacRae, and the kid’s 36-year-old mom, Renee MacRae, in November 1976.
On Wednesday, Mrs MacDowell, additionally 80, advised defence lawyer Murray Macara KC, about her husband’s well being, together with his poor mobility and the treatment he’s on.
He is really a strolling lifeless man, and he has a DNR arrange already
“He has a really sick liver, very sick kidneys and his coronary heart is attempting very laborious to maintain him alive,” she mentioned.
“He’s really a strolling lifeless man, and he has a DNR (don’t resuscitate) arrange already.”
MacDowell is on trial charged with assaulting Mrs MacRae and Andrew on the Dalmagarry layby on the A9 trunk highway south of Inverness, or elsewhere, by means unknown, and because of this murdering them.
He’s additionally charged with disposing of their our bodies and belongings by means unknown.
MacDowell denies all costs and has lodged a particular defence of incrimination and alibi.
Retired officer Peter Black, now 80, advised the court docket of an “agitated” and “unstable” interview within the Eighties after Mrs MacDowell was detained on the couple’s former teaching home, the Criminal Inn in Peeblesshire, and brought to the police station in Peebles.
In the course of the interview, he challenged discrepancies in her story as to when her husband arrived dwelling, which she mentioned was about 8.30pm. She mentioned: “Properly, that will need to have been proper on the time. I didn’t cowl up something.”
And, the court docket heard, when advised that tv programme The Quest completed after 10pm, and this didn’t match with the 8.30pm arrival, Mrs MacDowell didn’t have a proof.
Within the interview, Mrs MacDowell advised the officer: “I don’t know what you’re getting on at me for. I by no means stabbed her or no matter occurred to her.”
Christine Tuach, 81, advised prosecutor Alex Prentice KC that she had identified the accused from faculty and that her husband John later labored on the MacRae manufacturing facility as a supervisor.
On the night that Mrs MacRae went lacking, she advised the court docket, she had seen a Volvo which regarded just like MacDowell’s firm issued automobile on the A9. Inside, she noticed a white man with heavy-framed glasses.
“I believed it was Mr MacDowell,” she mentioned. “If it wasn’t him, it was any person who regarded like him.”
The trial, earlier than Lord Armstrong, continues.
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