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

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

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.”