Key Points
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Nicola Sturgeon has spoken for the first time since her husband admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National Party - The former first minister of Scotland said it had been the ‘worst week of my life’
- Sturgeon said she was coming to terms with the realisation that she was married to someone she ‘didn’t know at all’
- The former SNP leader also addressed questions about how she didn’t know about her husband’s outlandish spending
- Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell pled guilty to using party money to fund a lavish lifestyle that he couldn’t afford
- Sturgeon responds to reports she had given ‘no comment’ interviews to police
Nicola Sturgeon has said this has been the “worst week of my life” after her estranged husband admitted stealing more than £400,000 from the SNP and spending it on luxury goods, cars and hundreds of other items.
Speaking for the first time since Peter Murrell pled guilty to embezzlement, the former first minister of Scotland said she realised she had spent years married to someone she “didn’t know at all”.
She said it was a “really painful truth to process”.
Sturgeon said the last few years had had several “tough weeks” but that this one had surpassed all of them.
Her husband, the SNP’s former chief executive, embezzled £400,310.65 from the party over 12 years.
Murrell bought £12,000 worth of Apple products, spent more than £17,000 on Montblanc pens, bought Lalique Feuilles salt and pepper grinders worth £2,618, and spent £3,000 on a luxury bone china tea set.
He also bought an £80,000 Jaguar and a £124,000 motorhome.
The former first minister of Scotland said she was not aware of many of the items being purchased by Murrell with funds embezzled from the SNP – finding out about things in newspaper reports on Monday.
Speaking at the Listowel Writers’ Week book festival in western Ireland, she said: “This has been probably the worst week of my life and you know the last few years have had some tough ones for me, but this one, I think, surpasses all of them.
“You’re coming to terms with the fact that you spent many years – I spent many years – married to somebody that, as it turns out, I obviously didn’t know at all.
“It’s a really painful truth to process, and I think I’m only in the very early stages of processing it.
“And then to be in a position of such public turmoil myself makes that even harder.”
Getty ImagesSturgeon also hit out at her critics and said she had been the subject of a “forensic” police investigation over the last two years and had been “completely exonerated”.
Responding to the question of how she couldn’t have known about her husband’s crimes, Sturgeon said it was a “big misassumption that she knew anything about it”.
She said she wanted people to hear her side of the story and said she understood the questions.
“We were two people on high salaries, no kids, I was doing a job, and this was another factor, I was doing a job, working around the clock, away from home a lot of the time,” she said.
“Maybe this doesn’t reflect well on me, I didn’t spend a lot of time in my kitchen. I don’t spend anytime in my kitchen.
Alan Simpson“I have been deceived, I’ve been misled, I’ve been lied to and I’ve been betrayed.
“I’m not the first, and I won’t be the last woman that’s betrayed by her husband.”
Sturgeon was sitting on stage with Scottish novelist Andrew O’Hagan for an in conversation event on Thursday afternoon.
She said it “feels like I’m sitting with a therapist right now”.
“It’s a long-winded way of saying I’m not ok, I will be ok,” she added.
“I’m a strong, resilient person. I’ve had to be the last few years. This is a tough thing to come to terms with.”
Following Murrell’s guilty plea, a list of the items he purchased with the money was revealed in court papers.
The included three Wusthof manicure sets worth £193.70, DVDs including The Killing and Borgen as well as a book of Sturgeon’s speeches.
Murrell had been chief executive of the SNP for more than 20 years, until he stood down amid the race to replace Sturgeon as the party’s leader.
Sturgeon said she is a “great believer in taking responsibility for your own actions and your own mistakes”, but added there are people in society who “look for a woman to blame” when a man “does something wrong”.
“I’m obviously feeling a bit raw about this subject matter right now, but this is not the first time I’ve experienced this kind of thing,” she said.
“And it seems to me – and I bet there’s women in here, there’ll be women all over the country, the world, who will recognise what I’m saying – we still live in a society where when a man does something wrong, there are some people who will, the first thing they will do is look for the woman to blame.”
She added: “I am pretty sure that there have been days this week where my picture has featured in the front pages of Scottish newspapers more than my ex-husband has, and that can be right.
“I am responsible for my actions. I’m not responsible for the actions of my ex-husband.”
Sturgeon said she “fully co-operated” with Police Scotland after she was arrested.
Asked about reports she had given “no comment” interviews to police, Sturgeon said: “I did answer Police Scotland’s questions.
“I wrote… I followed the advice of my lawyer in a very stressful situation. I think most people would follow the advice of their lawyer.
“But after my interview, and this probably wasn’t reported in the press because it maybe didn’t suit the narrative of the report, I sent a fully detailed written response to the questions that the police had put to me, and never heard any more from them for two years until they told me I was cleared.
“So, fully co-operated with the police.”
Murrell was remanded in custody after pleading guilty on Monday and will return to court next month to be sentenced.
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