Peter Murrell knows his fate. But the SNP have questions to answer

It is likely the former SNP chief executive will only serve half of his sentence when he becomes eligible for parole after roughly two and a half years.

But it is hard to imagine Murrell will be in a rush to escape the protection he will receive in HMP Dumfries.

Murrell’s character has been remarkably unchanged in three court appearances he has made this year.

And yet, his lawyer John Scullion KC painted a bleak picture of Murrell during sentencing.

An ostracised and isolated man. Embarrassed and ridiculed for his crimes. His life will never be the same again. The court heard he is unlikely to ever receive employment because of the nature of his crimes.

"At present, he does not consider himself worthy of sympathy, acknowledging that not only is a custodial sentence inevitable, but that it is entirely deserved,” his lawyer told Lord Young, the judge presiding over this case.

“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. The nature of many of his purchases detailed in the narrative and schedules to the indictment has made him a figure of public ridicule.

"His humiliation will endure beyond any sentence your Lordship imposes and may prove lifelong."

Lord Young was not moved by the portrait painted of Murrell. And nor should we be. There should be no sympathy for the man who gave no thought to his victims during his 12-year embezzlement spree, where he purchased luxury goods to benefit his own life. A life he otherwise would not have been able to afford.

This was not a moment of weakness by Murrell. It was calculated abuse of an unchecked system set up by the SNP which allowed him to get away with it.

Between August 2010 and October 2022, Murrell used SNP charge cards, raised false invoices, and buried his purchases under misleading accounting codes. He only stopped when he was caught and by that time a staggering sum of £400,310.65 had been stolen.

There has been no public explanation why he did what he did. And there may never be. The victims are the honest SNP members who paid into an independence campaign fund.

Alongside his estranged wife Nicola Sturgeon, Murrell was at the top of the SNP during the most important years of devolution. Public trust in the party’s governance may take years to rebuild.

The items he bought tell their own story. A £124,550 motorhome. £19,000 on luxury pens and £5,000 on coffee machines. A £1,200 telescope. And at the banal end, toilet rolls and laundry baskets. The petty alongside the extravagant.

This was not a man consumed by one catastrophic decision, but one who had normalised treating the party’s money as his own.

The SNP and Nicola Sturgeon insist they knew nothing of Murrell’s offending. That may be enough for the criminal law. But politically, they have questions to answer here, too. How on earth did Murrell manage to get away with this for so long?

A leaked video from a meeting of the SNP ruling body in 2021 shows Ms Sturgeon dismiss questions over financial irregularities or mismanagement. She tells members they should be careful about raising the issues because it could deter donors from giving money to the party.

John Swinney has also acknowledged that more than £660,000 raised by SNP donors for independence campaigning was spent during the party’s ongoing activities, including elections. He must answer the questions from concerned members who feel their donations have been misused.

Lord Young was clear Murrell’s hefty sentence was imposed to make an example out of him, to deter any other person who holds similar privilege from misusing finances.

But deterrence does not begin and end with Murrell behind bars. It demands honesty from those who signed off on the accounts, banked the donations and reassured members that everything was in order.