{"id":514110,"date":"2026-06-23T09:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/514110\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T09:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:46:09","slug":"former-snp-chief-peter-murrell-sentenced-to-more-than-five-years-for-embezzling-party-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/514110\/","title":{"rendered":"Former SNP chief Peter Murrell sentenced to more than five years for embezzling party funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"Murrell showed no emotion in courtpublished at 10:07 BST<\/p>\n

10:07 BST<\/p>\n

Paul Ward
BBC News Scotland, at the High Court in Edinburgh<\/p>\n

I was sitting with the pool cameras allowed in the main
\nbody of the court to film the sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n

I could see Peter Murrell handcuffed by his right hand to
\na prison officer as he arrived in court, wearing a dark suit and navy tie.<\/p>\n

The metal cuffs could be heard jangling as he walked to
\nthe dock. They were unlocked before he sat down.<\/p>\n

When the hearing began he looked straight ahead,
\nblinking, as his defence lawyer told the court that Murrell expected no
\nsympathy.<\/p>\n

As well as the cameras in court there was also a sketch
\nartist, another rarity in Scottish courts.<\/p>\n

She was studying Murrell as he sat in the dock and took
\nsome notes before leaving the court room to start her sketch.<\/p>\n

As he was sentenced, Murrell looked straight ahead
\nlistening to the judge. He showed no emotion as he was told he would serve five
\nyears and three months in jail.<\/p>\n

He was then again cuffed by his right hand and led out of
\ncourt to prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Murrell showed no emotion in courtpublished at 10:07 BST 10:07 BST Paul WardBBC News Scotland, at the High…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-514110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}