'I'm the man with the money,' Murrell told Shetland jeweller

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When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller’s shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was “the man with the money”.

At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland’s first minister.

During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights.

Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP.

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At the High Court in Edinburgh the 61-year-old admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party between August 2010 and October 2022.

He pleaded guilty to illicitly purchasing items including luxury goods, jewellery, cosmetics, two cars and a motorhome.

Sturgeon said she had been “deceived and let down by a husband she loved and trusted”.

She added that she had “no reason to doubt” that he was spending his own money as they earned high salaries, rarely socialised or went on holidays.

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Kenneth Rae, the owner of Shetland Jewellery, told BBC Scotland News that he was in the store during Murrell’s visit on 28 July 2019.

“They came in and then Peter Murrell said, while his wife was in the workshop area, ‘I’m the man with the money. I need to buy something’.”

Rae said Murrell browsed through their stock and bought a pendant called the Mirrie Dancer Drongs.

It shows the sea stacks off the coast of Hillswick, with the “mirrie dancer” Northern Lights illuminating the sky above.

“We were happy he wanted to buy something… as far as I can remember it was about £850,” he added.

It was listed in court documents next to a figure of £425.

Sturgeon was seen wearing the pendant necklace on several occasions that summer and in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament.

“Nicola did wear that pendant quite often and you can see it on television and we’re very popular of the fact that she was wearing a bit of Shetland Jewellery,” he said.

Several years later Police Scotland flew officers to Shetland to take a statement as part of their investigation into allegations of embezzlement of SNP funds.

“We were surprised to hear that two policemen were coming up to Shetland to interview us specially about our sale of a gold pendant to Peter Murrell,” Rae said.

“They were flown up from Glasgow at enormous expense and interviewed the people in the workshop and wrote down all the evidence they could gather and went away again.”

In a social media post published after her estranged husband’s guilty plea, Sturgeon said she was “angry, hurt, sad and very distressed”, and described it as a “profound personal trauma”.

“To be deceived and let down by a husband I loved and trusted has caused me acute pain. Why he acted as he did is, and always will be, beyond my comprehension.”

She added: “That I was fully cleared after a thorough investigation underlines that these are not my crimes. I was misled just as others were.”

In a later statement put out by her lawyer Aamer Anwar, she said she was not aware that he had purchased many of the high-value items listed in court documents.

“In respect of any items I was aware of Peter having purchased, I had no reason to doubt that he had used his own money.

“We were both earning high salaries and, due to the responsibilities of my job, rarely socialised or went on holidays.

“We had separate bank accounts and I had no access to his financial records.”

Murrell has been remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced next month.

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