Mugs in drawers and watches in cupboards: What police pictures tell us about Peter Murrell’s illicit purchases

Other items found in the SNP headquarters included a £195 memo holder from Smythson, a tea set costing £2,396, and a selection of writing folders.

As part of Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform Sturgeon was interviewed in June 2023 by detectives. However, she has always maintained her innocence, and was told last year that she was no longer under investigation by police.

On 31 May this year, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg asked the former first minister whether she knew about the expensive watches, pens and coffee machines bought by her estranged husband.

Sturgeon said: “I never saw those watches until they were asked about in the context of a criminal investigation….. we were on salaries that would not have made me question how we could have afforded a decent coffee machine.”

In that same TV interview she said of Peter Murrell: “Not only has he lied to me and betrayed me – and if this was an entirely private thing, that would be bad enough – but it’s more than that.

“He has put me into a position of… of real peril. He has subjected me to public vilification, having the finger of suspicion pointed at me, you know, humiliation, allowed me to be seen on camera using things.”