Estranged husband of former Scottish leader sentenced to 5 years and 3 months in prison

LONDON (AP) — The estranged husband of Scotland’s former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was sentenced Tuesday to five years and three months in prison for embezzling more than 400,000 pounds ($540,000) from the Scottish National Party to fund a luxury lifestyle when he was its chief executive.

Peter Murrell, 61, admitted using party funds to buy a high-priced motorhome, a Jaguar electric SUV, luxury goods such as Bremont watches and household items that included two toilet seats. He was given credit for time served.

“All told, this was a calculated crime of dishonesty,’’ Judge James Young said at the High Court in Edinburgh. “And let me make it clear to you, one factor in the sentence which I imposed today will be to act as a deterrent to any senior officials in other large organizations who might be tempted to abuse their position in the way that you did.”

Sturgeon, who led Scotland’s semiautonomous government for more than eight years, has distanced herself from Murrell’s crimes and says she was not aware of his crimes.

Murrell’s sentencing caps a tumultuous period for Scotland’s dominant party, which supports independence from the United Kingdom, and the former power couple once at its helm.

Young said he couldn’t identify anything in Murrell’s background, working life or personal circumstances that might explain his crimes or mitigate his sentence. But he acknowledged that public coverage of Murrell’s downfall would make future employment difficult if not impossible.

“In truth, it is very difficult to get a clear picture for what drove your actions,’’ Young said. “Many of the high value items acquired by you were not even used.”

Murrell’s lawyer, John Scullion, told the court before the sentence was read out that the former political operative has been ostracized by his past colleagues, but he accepts blame for his actions.

“For many months he has lived in almost total isolation,” Scullion said.

The case has drawn widespread coverage in Scotland and across the U.K. ever since police searched Murrell’s home on April 5, 2023, less than two months after Sturgeon resigned as leader of the Scottish National Party.

In addition to debates over the political implications of the case, newspapers and TV news featured comprehensive lists of the items Murrell bought with the embezzled money, from the luxurious to the banal.

Those included multiple expensive coffee makers, a pendant Sturgeon often was seen wearing, an egg poacher and DVDs of the TV series “Borgen” about the life of Denmark’s fictional first female prime minister, which Sturgeon told reporters she liked.