Nicola Sturgeon Says Peter Murrell Deceived and Betrayed Her Over SNP Embezzlement

Nicola Sturgeon said she was “deceived, betrayed and lied to” by her estranged husband Peter Murrell after he pleaded guilty at the high court in Edinburgh to embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP between 2010 and 2022.

Sturgeon, 55, told an audience in Ireland at her first public appearance since the plea that she was coming to terms with being married to someone she “did not know at all,” and she said she was having “probably the worst week” of her life.

Al Jazeera

Murrell was remanded in custody after the plea, and the BBC said an examination of facts surrounding the case is due to be heard on 2 June.

The BBC reported that Sturgeon was in Ireland to promote her memoir, Frankly, and that she told the audience it had been the “worst week of her life.”

Sturgeon said she was “completely exonerated” after a “two-year-long, very forensic police investigation,” during which police officers searched the home she and Murrell had shared.

She told the BBC she was questioned by police as part of the probe but was released without charge, and she said she was told last year she was no longer under investigation.

BBC

The BBC reported that Sturgeon repeatedly answered “no comment” to detectives during questioning, while her lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said she later provided a “detailed written response” to Police Scotland questions.

At Listowel Writers’ Week in County Kerry, Sturgeon said she would “probably need to sit with a therapist,” describing it as “a long-winded way of saying I am not OK.”

The BBC said Murrell could face a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced on 23 June, and it reported that an examination of facts is due to be heard on 2 June.

“- Published Nicola Sturgeon has said she was "deceived, betrayed and lied to" by her estranged husband Peter Murrell as he embezzled hundreds of thousands of pounds from the SNP”

BBC

Sturgeon told the BBC she wanted to tell her side of the story but would wait until the legal process was at an end, and she said she was “not ok, but I will be ok.”

The BBC reported that First Minister John Swinney dismissed calls for a Holyrood inquiry into the case during FMQs on Thursday, while saying he was “appalled” by Murrell’s conduct.

The BBC also said Operation Branchform began in 2021 investigating allegations of fundraising fraud within the SNP, and it reported that Murrell spent more than 20 years as chief executive of the party before resigning in March 2023.