Sturgeon ‘humiliated’ and ‘unaware’ of Murrell’s crimes – Daily Business

Holding back tears: Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon today said she was not aware of anything suspicious in the SNP’s accounts during the time that her now ex-husband Peter Murrell was raiding the party’s funds.

She did not notice a drop of £300,000 in one year because funds “went up and down”, adding that the accounts were audited and it was the national treasurer who would alert her to anything untoward.

Murrell, the former SNP’s former CEO, is facing a lengthy prison term after admitting he embezzled £400,000 from the party.

Questions continue to be asked about how Ms Sturgeon, who married him in 2010, was not aware of a series of expensive items he bought with the money.

“The idea there was anything in the accounts that would have alerted me to what Peter pled guilty to on Monday is absolutely, fundamentally untrue,” she said in a BBC interview. “If there had been, I suspect the police and the Crown Office might have reached a different position on me.”

Asked to comment on SNP figures trying to flag to her that there was something going on with the party’s finances, including several who resigned from the ruling commitee, she said: “No they weren’t”.

When she had told them there was “no reason to be concerned” she said she was referring to the party’s underlying financial health, which was strong.

She said: “There was no occasion that somebody came to me and said they were concerned that somebody was embezzling money from the SNP.

“If qualified auditors weren’t able to see that I am not sure how I and the national treasurer could see that.” She added: “I had to be careful not to step on the toes of the police investigation.”

She said she feels she is “serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit”, adding:”I am not responsible for the crimes that my former husband committed and I’m not going to apologise for somebody else’s crimes.”

Murrell who has never explained his actions to her. He told her before last week’s court hearing that he would plead guilty to embezzling £400,000 from the party. The money was spent on a range of luxury goods, including gifts for her,.

“Am I angry with him? I don’t think that begins to cover it. Not only has he lied to me and betrayed me…he has put me in a position of real peril, he has subjected me to public vilification, having the finger of suspicion pointed at me.. the humiliation.

“Some of my birthday presents and Christmas presents have turned out to be a lie,” she said, recalling a favourite pendant that Murrell had bought as a surprise after she saw it in a shop in Shetland.

“What he has done to me will take me a very, very long time to recover from.”

Even so, she insisted she did not consider herself a victim.

“I’m a working class girl from the west of Scotland, I don’t like victim terminology,” she said. “I will never think of myself as a victim. The SNP is the victim,”

On the famous motorhome that Murrell bought for £124,550 and parked it at her mother-in-law’s home, she said: “I genuinely have no conscious memory of seeing that motorhome.” It was “round the sides of the house which is not immediately visible in the way that we went into the home”.

She said “it was between their house and the next door neighbour’s” and if she had seen it she would “probably have assumed it was a neighbour’s”, adding: “Why would it have crossed my mind that it was the SNP’s?”

On her future, she said: “I am determined that this doesn’t wreck my life and stop me doing the things I want to do.”

She did not think any of her assets should be used to as part of any proceeds of crime.

Andrew Bowie, the Shadow Scotland Secretary, has led calls for the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster to hold an inquiry into the scandal after First Minister John Swinney said there was no need for further investigation.

#Sturgeon #humiliated #unaware #Murrells #crimes #Daily #Business