Freeing ‘devil in the woods’ psychopath was a ticking time-bomb
Attack was waiting to happen says home leave killer’s victim
A DOG walker who was bludgeoned with a dumbbell by a psychopathic killer on home leave has described the attack as a ‘time-bomb’ waiting to happen.
Linda McDonald, 54, was battered senseless by Robbie McIntosh as she walked her Jack Russell in Templeton Woods in Dundee.
McIntosh was serving a life sentence for killing another dog walker in the city when he had been only 16 years old.
In August last year, the murderer was allowed out of Greenock Prison for a week’s home leave. Instead, he lay in wait for another victim.
Mrs McDonald only survived the murderous attack because McIntosh was disturbed by other walkers.
Speaking for the first time about the experience, Mrs McDonald says she has been let down by the justice system and insists McIntosh should never have been let out.
She believes he was ‘just waiting for an opportunity’ to strike again – and that home release gave him that chance.
Politicians yesterday criticised home leave and accused the Scottish Government of overseeing a ‘soft-touch’ justice system.
Mrs McDonald said: ‘How many home leaves has he had that he’s been up there roaming about just waiting for an opportunity.
‘It was just a time-bomb, it was just waiting to happen.
‘He didn’t know me, I didn’t even speak, he didn’t speak.
‘He’s not human, he’s pure evil. The part of his brain that would have to show empathy and all those emotions doesn’t work.’
McIntosh had been jailed for a minimum of 15 years in 2002 after being found guilty of murdering Anne Nicoll, 34, as she walked her dog on Dundee Law.
The killing shocked the nation as it emerged that he had stabbed the civil servant 29 times.
But locals in Bridgefoot, near Templeton Woods, were horrified to learn in 2016 that
‘He’s not human, he’s pure evil’
McIntosh was being allowed out of jail regularly.
The authorities said McIntosh was being ‘tightly monitored’ under Tayside’s MultiAgency Public Protection Arrangements, which are supposed to protect the public from dangerous criminals.
After only five days of freedom, McIntosh put a dumbbell in a rucksack and set out to carry out another horrific attack with chilling similarities to his original crime. Mother-of-two Mrs McDonald was left with two skull fractures and permanent scars after the attack, with her thumb having to be reattached.
After pleading guilty to attempted murder earlier this year at the High Court in Aberdeen, McIntosh was given a Lifelong Restriction Order, meaning he may never be released from prison.
The Scottish Prison Service has conducted a review, and an inquiry is under way into how he was monitored.
Mrs McDonald has now appeared in a documentary, Murdertown, to describe the day of the attack and the impact it had on her life.
Mrs McDonald said: ‘The route I took was the usual route, I know the woods like the back of my hands. I was just going home. You would think you were just going to wake up and it was a mistake.
‘I just remember wanting to describe what he looked like because if I died, nobody would know and he would do it to somebody else.’
Mrs McDonald told how passers-by disturbed McIntosh as he tried to kill her.
She said: ‘A lady called Joyce, she lay down with me and she just kept speaking to me. I begged her not to go because I didn’t want to die on my own.’
The grandmother said she no longer visits any woodlands. ‘It’s just a reminder of the evil, for me it’s the devil in the woods. The monster. It’s never going to be the way it was before.’
Yesterday, Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘It’s no wonder this brave victim is so furious at the way in which her attacker was released.’
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: ‘It is important that any lessons that need to be, are learned and implemented by relevant agencies. We await the outcome of the Significant Case Review, which will identify where improvements can be made.’