Sturgeon's prized home library amongst items paid for with embezzled SNP funds

Ms Sturgeon’s estranged husband Peter Murrell was hauled back into court on Tuesday after admitting embezzling £400,000 from the SNP over more than a decade.

More than 1,000 items were purchased with money that had been donated to the party for independence campaigning, ranging from toilet roll through to a £125,000 luxury motorhome.

Documents laid before the court reveal that Ms Sturgeon’s bookshelves and a book ladder were among the items paid for with the embezzled funds.

The “fitted home library” was left behind in the couple’s family home after police raided it in April 2023.

Court documents from last week suggested Murrell had paid Neville Johnson Ltd £1,946 in 2016 as a first payment for a fitted library, and spent £943 on an oak library ladder.

Get our revamped Steamie newsletter

The court narrative said: “Some of the items listed in the schedules were recovered by police during their search of the accused’s home in April 2023, with a smaller number of others being recovered from the SNP headquarters.

“Others were found but left in situ at the accused’s home, including a fitted home library which was partly paid for with SNP funds, a wooden library ladder, a bathroom vanity unit, a kitchen unit for the boiler and fitted mats in the hallway.

“The majority of the items purchased were not found during the searches.”

On several occasions Ms Sturgeon gave online interviews in front of this home library, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.

She also showed off her bookcase in a 2021 filmed interview in her Uddingston home, and said: “I now share a house with books rather than the other way round.”

Ms Sturgeon was arrested in 2023 as part of Operation Branchform, the Police Scotland inquiry into SNP funds, but was released without charge. She maintains she was unaware of Murrell’s criminal activities and said she has been betrayed by her former husband.

The court narrative detailed how Murrell was able to approve his own expenses as CEO of the SNP, and made false expenses claims.

It said: “As CEO of the party, the accused had ultimate approval of all expenses claims submitted, including his own.

“Although there was an electronic portal through which expenses claims should have been submitted, the accused stated to colleagues that he could not access it and was thereby able to submit his own claims without necessarily providing a receipt or invoice.

“On four occasions between January 2019 and September 2020 he made false claims and received money from the party in relation to expenses which he had not incurred. The entails of those false claims, including dates and sums, are listed in schedule one to the indictment.

“The total sum received by the accused by way of false expenses claims was £18,408.91.

“In relation to two of those claims, false invoices were created by the accused to give the impression that they were for legitimate party expenditure.”