Peter Murrell, ex-husband of Nicola Sturgeon, jailed for five years and three months for embezzling over £400,000 from the Scottish National Party.
EDINBURGH: The ex-husband of Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was jailed for five years and three months on Tuesday, for embezzling more than £400,000 ($529,000) from the pro-independence Scottish National Party.
Peter Murrell pleaded guilty last month after a years-long probe into the party’s finances which shook Scotland’s ruling party and led to several high-profile resignations.
Sturgeon, who denied any knowledge of the crimes and was cleared in the investigation, quit as the head of Scotland’s devolved administration in Edinburgh in February 2023.
Murrell, 61, who was the SNP’s chief executive for over two decades until 2023, was arrested in April of that year after officers searched the house he shared with Sturgeon.
He used the party money to make extravagant, and sometimes bizarre purchases including a motorhome, cars, jewellery, coffee machines, luxury salt and pepper grinders and video games.
The offences relate to actions from 2010 to 2022.
Judge James Young, handing down the sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh, told Murrell his actions involved “a significant breach of trust to the organisation which you led and to the individual members and donors of that organisation”.
“The manner of embezzlement, although not particularly sophisticated, included the fabrication of invoices,” Young said, adding that it was “very difficult to get a clear picture of what drove your actions”.
A once-prominent figure in the SNP, Murrell’s arrest sent shockwaves through the SNP, subject of the lengthy investigation over the diversion of £600,000 in SNP donations that were meant to support its independence campaign.
Scotland’s current First Minister John Swinney said he felt “betrayed” by Murrell’s actions after his conviction in May.
“By embezzling from the SNP, Peter Murrell was stealing the hopes, the dreams and the aspirations of thousands of people all over Scotland,” said Swinney.
In a post on Instagram after her ex-husband pleaded guilty, Sturgeon said she was “utterly appalled” and that she had “no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever”.
“To be deceived and let down by a husband I loved and trusted has caused me acute pain,” she added.
Sturgeon stepped down as a lawmaker earlier this year, ending a near 30-year career as one of the independence movement’s main figureheads.
