NICOLA Sturgeon has said she is angry at the hurt and trauma caused by her estranged husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP.
The former first minister said it will take a “very, very long time to recover” from her ex-husband’s crime, which led to her sitting in a police station under arrest.
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Sturgeon added that despite Murrell putting her into a position of “real peril,” she insisted that she will never see herself as a “victim”.
Murrell pleaded guilty on Monday to embezzling the sum of more than £400,000 from the SNP between 2010 and 2022 while Sturgeon was the SNP party leader between 2014 and 2023.
The 61-year-old spent the money on items including a motorhome, cars, kitchen gadgets, expensive watches and pens, and more mundane purchases such as hand cream and toilet seats. He is set to be sentenced in June.
When asked by Kuenssberg if she felt anger towards Murrell, Sturgeon said that she believes that doesn’t “begin to cover it”.
She said: “Not only has he lied to me and betrayed me – and if this was an entirely private thing, that would be bad enough, I mean, I’ve been genuinely touched this week by some of the messages I’ve had by women who’ve been betrayed by their husbands, lied to by their husbands, not in identical circumstances, although some in not dissimilar circumstances, and speaking to me about the – just the depth of hurt they feel, and I feel all of that.
“But it’s more than that. He has put me into a position of real peril, he has subjected me to public vilification, having the finger of suspicion pointed at me, humiliation, allowed me to be seen on camera using things.”
Sturgeon added: “Am I angry at him? Yes, I’m angry, but I’m also carrying a degree of hurt and I think a degree of trauma about – this whole episode resulted in my sitting in a police station under arrest.
“What he has done to me, I think, will take me a very, very long time to recover from.”
Sturgeon previously said she had been “completely cleared and exonerated” by police and that she had been lied to by her former husband.
The former first minister's interview comes after the SNP faced calls this week for an independent inquiry into its finances.
When asked if she feels like she is a victim of Murrell’s crime, Sturgeon told Kuenssberg she believes the SNP were the victims of his crime.
She said: “I’m a working-class girl from the West of Scotland, I don’t like victim terminology, I will never think of myself as a victim.
“The SNP’s the victim in this crime – and that hurts me too, because I joined the SNP at aged 16, it’s not just a political party to me, and, you know, obviously I led it for almost a decade, the SNP is like my extended family.
“I’ve fundraised for it like its other members have, I’ve had other people fundraise for election campaigns I was the candidate in.
“I feel utterly distraught and distressed about the fact the SNP has been subjected to this.
“I refuse to think of myself as a victim, and I will never describe myself as a victim, but my former husband has subjected me to things that I don’t think anybody should be subjected to.”
