Minister says sorry to victim over dumbbell psychopath’s assault
Yousaf apologises for battered woman’s trauma
JUSTICE Secretary Humza Yousaf has apologised to a woman battered unconscious by a convicted killer when he was released from jail on home leave. Robbie McIntosh attempted to murder Linda McDonald as she walked her dog in Templeton Woods, Dundee, in August 2017. Linda, 55, said: “I don’t blame the psychopath that attacked me that day, I blame the Scottish Prison Service for giving him the opportunity to attack me by giving him his home leave when all the signs were there.” With a significant case review last year having concluded the decision to release McIntosh was “flawed”, Linda said: “It was a mistake to let him out. He was a dangerous psychopath.” McIntosh, 32 at the time of the attack, had been granted a week’s home release from Castle Huntly prison. Linda feared she was going to die in the attack, in which she was battered with a dumbbell. McIntosh had been behind bars for murdering dog walker Anne Nicoll on the Law in Dundee in 2001, when he stabbed his victim repeatedly.
Linda said the Justice Secretary had “apologised wholeheartedly to me and my family for the failings”.
She added: “That is all I ever wanted, for them to acknowledge mistakes were made so no one else could be hurt.”
Lawyer Aamer Anwar said: “Today was the first time someone took responsibility for what had happened and Linda and her family welcomed the meeting with Humza Yousaf the Justice Secretary and the apology he gave to her and her family.”
After the meeting, Yousaf said: “Mrs McDonald has shown considerable bravery and I am sorry to hear of the pain and trauma she has experienced. It’s clear that this crime has had a lasting impact and it was important to me to meet with her and her family to hear directly from them. I have offered to meet them again should they find that helpful and I will reflect further on the points raised today.”
He added that public protection was key to Scotland’s approach to managing people with offending backgrounds in the community.
Yousaf said that it was impossible to eliminate risk entirely but the justice system aimed to do everything that could reasonably be done to protect people from individuals with serious offending backgrounds.
The SPS accepted all the recommendations of the review that relate to them without reservation.