![\"Analysis\"](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\")
We know more about Murrell’s crimes – but questions remainpublished at 13:00 BST<\/p>\nWe know more about Murrell’s crimes – but questions remainpublished at 13:00 BST<\/p>\n
13:00 BST<\/p>\n
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James Cook
Scotland editor<\/p>\n
We now know a little more about how Peter Murrell carried out his
\ncrimes.<\/p>\n
The Crown described the scope of his corruption, from luxury items
\nto mundane household goods.<\/p>\n
At one end of the scale, Murrell recorded the \u00a39,350.25 purchase
\nof two Bremont watches as “event merchandise”. At the other he
\nentered a \u00a323.98 egg poacher in SNP accounting software as “ethernet
\ncabling”.<\/p>\n
Various items described in court link back to the home Murrell
\nshared with Nicola Sturgeon. Police found a \u00a33,500 silver wine coaster there. He also used SNP funds to pay for a fitted home library, a kitchen unit for the
\nboiler and mats in the hallway.<\/p>\n
But we also learned today that the majority of his spoils were not
\nrecovered.<\/p>\n
Nicola Sturgeon has said she was deceived and betrayed by her
\nestranged husband and that she knew nothing of his crimes.<\/p>\n
But there are still many outstanding questions for both Sturgeon
\nand the current SNP leader, First Minister John Swinney, about how the party
\nfailed to spot theft on such a scale.<\/p>\n
![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/674b705f-e3cf-4bc4-86b5-38ddcaf63cb5.jpg.webp\")
Image caption, <\/p>\n
Peter Murrell will be sentenced late this month<\/p>\n
The former first minister, Labour’s Jack McConnell, wants a joint Westminster and Holyrood parliamentary inquiry into the circumstances of the crimes.<\/p>\n
This morning he told me that Sturgeon and Swinney were making “a big mistake\u201d by \u201cdigging in\u201d over the past week, accusing them of \u201cbasically saying ‘nothing to be seen here, nothing to learned\u2019”.<\/p>\n
Finally, there is also the outstanding \u2013 and glaring \u2013 question of why Murrell did it.<\/p>\n
Why did he purchase nine vacuum cleaners costing around \u00a34,000 in four years?<\/p>\n
Why did he buy a luxury motorhome, kit it out with a television, an Alessi teapot and Molton Brown toiletries, and buy travel guides to Britain and Ireland \u2013 then only drive it four miles?<\/p>\n
Murrell’s lawyer John Scullion KC said he would enter a plea in mitigation at sentencing on 23 June. A social work report is also being produced for that hearing.<\/p>\n
Maybe then we will obtain a glimpse into the mind of a man whose journeys are now taken not in a camper van but a prison van.<\/p>\n