Who is Peter Murrell? The former SNP chief who stole from his party

As Peter Murrell was sentenced to five years and three months in jail, his lawyer told the High Court in Edinburgh the former SNP chief executive was a man "overwhelmed by feelings of embarrassment and shame".

Murrell, the estranged husband of former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, pleaded guilty last month to embezzling more than £400,000 from the party he ran for more than 20 years.

His lawyer told the court the nature of many of the 61-year-old's purchases had made him a figure of public ridicule whose humiliation will endure long beyond his prison sentence.

Passing sentence, the judge added that it was "very difficult to get a clear picture for what drove your actions".

Despite his influence on Scottish politics, Murrell had always shunned the limelight until the details of his crimes placed him in the full glare of publicity.

So, who is Peter Murrell and why did he end up with a lengthy prison sentence for stealing from the party he had served for decades?

Murrell was born in Edinburgh and educated at the city's Craigmount High School.

Friend John Brady remembers a quiet but very affable boy with a dry sense of humour, who was active in the Boys Brigade.

Brady told a new BBC documentary that they both had an interest in independence and joined the SNP.

He said Murrell had a flair for organising the key elements of a political campaign but described him as an introvert.

"It was that personality type which lent itself to being in the background," said Brady.

After graduating from Glasgow University, Murrell worked as a public relations officer for the Church of Scotland before embarking on a full-time career in politics.

He performed various party roles and in 1987 was recruited to run Alex Salmond's constituency office in Peterhead.

In 2001 he replaced Michael Russell as chief executive of the SNP and became responsible for the day-to-day running of the party.

During a tenure spanning more than two decades the SNP was transformed from a party on the fringes of power to a formidable election-winning machine.

Prior to his conviction Murrell was arguably best known for being married to former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon.

She was a teenager when they first met. However, writing in her autobiography Sturgeon said she didn't get to know Murrell until he became the party's chief executive.

Sturgeon said the pair grew close during the 2003 Holyrood election campaign and became a couple later that year. At the time, she was deputy first minister and health secretary.

Murrell proposed in their kitchen on Hogmanay 2009 and they were married in Glasgow's Oran Mor on 16 July 2010.

Sturgeon said the pair were "excited and happy" and wrote: "Both politically and personally, life couldn't get much better."

But, less than a month after the ceremony, Murrell started to embezzle money from the SNP.

His purchase of two Ali Baba laundry baskets from Amazon for £70.89 marked the start of more than 1,000 illicit purchases spanning 12 years.

When Alex Salmond stood down after the 2014 independence referendum, Sturgeon succeeded him as SNP leader.

The Glasgow MSP also made history by becoming Scotland's first female first minister.

At the time some voiced concerns about Murrell remaining as the party's chief executive.

But Sturgeon recently explained that she did not feel it was fair for her husband to lose a job he was doing well due to the fact she had been promoted.

In the years that followed, the power couple were photographed together at party conferences and polling stations.

They also attended major sporting and cultural events, including Andy Murray's second Wimbledon triumph in 2016 and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee concert in 2022.

On occasions when asked about her husband - notably during her appearance on ITV's Loose Women - Sturgeon was quick to credit Murrell for his cooking skills.

She once gave the Sunday Times an insight into how he has supported her political leadership.

Sturgeon revealed: "One of the things I value is that he's happy with me having the public role.

"He's not one of those guys who would feel threatened by it.

"He doesn't have that sort of ego, he's very self-assured."

While Sturgeon felt comfortable under the spotlight, Murrell preferred to stay largely anonymous.

But his role as chief executive came under scrutiny during the inquiry into the Scottish government's handling of complaints against Alex Salmond.

At the Holyrood Inquiry in 2020, Murrell denied plotting against Salmond, who died in October 2024.

But opposition MSPs believed that Murrell contradicted himself, and Sturgeon, over some of the details he gave in evidence.

He was pressed repeatedly about whether the meetings between Sturgeon and Salmond were SNP business - as the first minister had insisted - or government business, which would need to be officially recorded.

Murrell was back in the media spotlight in December 2022 when it was confirmed he had given a loan of £107,620 to the party to help it out with "cash flow" issues.

The SNP had repaid about half of the money by October of that year.

The party's official line was that the loan was a "personal contribution made by the chief executive to assist with cash flow after the Holyrood election".

However, it led to Sturgeon facing queries from the media about what she knew of her husband's financial situation.

She continued to lead the country and Murrell remained in charge of the party machine - until 15 February 2023. That was the day that a tearful Sturgeon announced her resignation as first minister.

Just over a month later Murrell resigned after taking responsibility for misleading the media about party membership numbers.

The SNP went from a membership of less than 25,000 in 2013 to more than 125,000 by December 2019.

But by March 2023 that figure had fallen back to 72,000.

Meanwhile, the net was finally closing in on the man who had been secretly spending party funds over a 12-year period.

On 5 April, Murrell was arrested and taken into custody.

A large blue and white forensic tent was erected in the couple's front garden, a move later defended by the police as "proportionate and necessary".

Three days later the then SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was arrested at his home in Midlothian and later released without charge pending further investigation.

Sturgeon was arrested on 11 June and taken into custody. She was also later released without charge.

But it was not until March last year that the former first minister and Beattie were told they were no longer under investigation.

Murrell was formally re-arrested on 18 April 2024 and charged with embezzlement.

In her autobiography, Sturgeon wrote: "It was another dark moment in what had started to feel like a nightmare with no end."

Last January Sturgeon confirmed the couple's marriage was over.

She posted on Instagram: "To all intents and purposes we have been separated for some time now and feel it is time to bring others up to speed with where we are.

"It goes without saying that we still care deeply for each other, and always will."

In February the allegations facing Murrell were back on the front pages after details of the indictment were published in the Scottish Sun.

Murrell finally appeared in the dock on 25 May, when he admitted embezzling £400,310.65 from the party from 12 August 2010 to 19 October 2022.

Afterwards a 126-page list of the items he bought with SNP funds was released to the media.

Sturgeon said she had no knowledge of his crimes and had been "deceived, betrayed and lied to".

The former first minister later told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg she feels like she is "serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit".

Murrell returned to court on 2 June, when a nine-page narrative shedding more light on his offending was read out by the Crown.

Three weeks later his lawyer, John Scullion KC, told the court at his sentencing that Murrell accepted full responsibility for his actions.

He said: "His plea of guilty is life changing. It has ended his career and future career prospects.

"He has been ostracised by his friends and former colleagues."

Scullion said the nature of many of his purchases had made him a figure of public ridicule and his future looked "bleak and solitary".

Murrell wants to make amends for crimes by repaying the money, his lawyer said, although he recognises that any attempts at atonement may prove futile.

The judge, Lord Young, said a Criminal Justice Social Work report had tried to explore Murrell's reasons for offending.

"You identified possible factors arising from your background, working life and personal circumstances," he said.

"But in truth, it is very difficult to get a clear picture for what drove your actions.

"Many of the high value items acquired by you were not even used.

"And for my purposes today, I think it's sufficient to say that I cannot identify any factors which caused you to offend, which might be considered to be mitigatory factors."