Murderer tried to kill again on leave from prison
● Victim’s family call for review after attempted murder by ‘ sick individual’
A convicted murderer tried to kill another woman while he was on home leave from prison by attacking her with a dumbell.
Robert MCIntosh– who was jailed for life for stabbing a woman dog walker to death in 2002 –attacked Linda Mcdonald as she walked her dog in Dundee’s Templeton Woods in August. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder yesterday.
MrsMcd on al d’ s husband, Matthew, said :“I can’t believe the Scottish Prison Service deemed that this sick individual … was allowed to be in the public domain.”
The family of a woman sub - ject ed to a violent attack by a murder er on home leave from prison have demanded to know why the “sick individual” was allowed out of jail.
Rober tMcintosh attacked Linda Mcdonald, 52, as she walked her dog in Templeton Woods, Dundee, in August, only stopping and running off when passers-by heard screams and came to help.
Mcintosh ,31, had been let out of Castle Huntly prison for a week ahead of a parole board hearing when the attack took place on 7 August.
He was jailed for 15 years in 2002 for murdering Anne Nicoll as she walked her dog on Dundee Law on 2 August, 2001, stabbing her repeatedly.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, MCIntosh admitted attempting to murder Mrs Mcdonald. She suffered two skull fractures and five head wounds in the attack and her thumb was broken in several places as she tried to defend herself.
Mrs Mcdonald’s husband, Matthew, said: “Given his past conviction for a brutal murder I can’ t believe the Scottish Prison Service deemed that this sick individual, who attempted to murder my wife, was allowed to be in the public domain.”
He added: “The fact that they did raises serious questions about the criteria followed by the appropriate authorities and if there had been strict monitoring, super vision and tagging in place we wouldn’t be going through this hell.”
Mr Mcdonald called on the SPS and the Parole Board to review release criteria and assessment systems as a matter priority, saying it was the “least we would expect”.
Solicitor Advocate Chris Fyffe,def ending MCIntosh, said his client felt “ashamed, contrite and penitent”.
Judge Lord Arthur son described the attempted murder as “one of the worst cases of violence I have had to deal with” and deferred sentence until 22 November.
An SPS spokeswoman said: “Those on home leave are released on licence conditions. A rigorous risk assessment is under taken prior to any offender being granted home leave. The majority of these take place without incident.”
But Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said the case underlined the need for so- called “whole life” sentences.
A Scottish Government spokesman said :“Processes for assessing and granting home leave are the most robust they have ever been and continue to be refined.”