‘This has been the worst week of my life, the former first minister of Scotland said
Nicola Sturgeon said she was deceived and let down by her ex-husband, who admitted stealing more than £400,000 from the SNP and spending it on luxury goods, cars, and hundreds of other items.
Speaking for the first time since Peter Murrell pled guilty to embezzlement, the former first minister of Scotland said she realised she had spent years married to someone she “didn’t know at all”.
She said it was a “really painful truth to process”.
Sturgeon said the last few years had had several “tough weeks” but that this one had surpassed all of them.
Her husband, the SNP’s former chief executive, embezzled £400,310.65 from the party over 12 years.
A 126-page indictment details hundreds of things Murrell bought using the £400,000 embezzled funds
Murrell bought £12,000 worth of Apple products, spent more than £17,000 on Montblanc pens, bought Lalique Feuilles salt and pepper grinders worth £2,618, and spent £3,000 on a luxury bone china tea set.
He also bought an £80,000 Jaguar and a £124,000 motorhome.
The former first minister of Scotland said she was not aware of many of the items being purchased by Murrell with funds embezzled from the SNP, claiming she had only found out about things in newspaper reports on Monday.
Speaking at the Listowel Writers’ Week book festival in western Ireland, she said she had been the subject of a “forensic” police investigation over the last two years and had been “completely exonerated”.
Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband was handcuffed after pleading guilty to stealing party funds
Following Murrell’s guilty plea, a list of the items he purchased with the money was revealed in court papers.
The included three Wusthof manicure sets worth £193.70, DVDs including The Killing and Borgen, as well as a book of Ms Sturgeon’s speeches.
Murrell had been chief executive of the SNP for more than 20 years, until he stood down amid the race to replace Sturgeon as the party’s leader.