Peter Murrell embezzlement trial

[Sunnnyday]

Peter Murrell is in court in Edinburgh today. This is for the preliminary hearing which was postponed from before the election. It will be interesting to see how the criminal proceedings proceed.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/peter-murrell-arrives-at-court-ahead-of-hearing-on-embezzlement-charges/ar-AA23Ybuy?ocid=msedgntp&pc

As has Joanna Cherry for her entire legal and political career, including when she was a trainee. Nobody cared.

It's all down to Wings in the first place.

What kinds of things are rumoured? I get if you'd rather not say. Do you mean his being secretly gay? Or something else?

Yes, Kezia Dugdale was too. If Nicola is, and had been out, she would hardly have been alone.

Exactly. They married in 2010 so Scotland was definitely getting much more accepting.

Ruth Davidson arguably took at least some risk in being openly lesbian as Tory leader. Sturgeon as SNP surely not much, given their portfolio included social liberalism. Seems dishonest to promote gay rights but have a sham marriage yourself especially when there's no need for one.

At one point, I remember it being reported that Murrell had at some point lent the SNP a large amount of money, I think upwards of £100k. I previously asked about this but was told we weren't allowed to speculate due to the case being ongoing. Does anyone know what that was about? It seems beyond strange (even by Murrell standards) to be in a position where you can afford to lend your employer such a large sum at the same time as embezzling more from them. Was it actually cover for returning funds he had taken? Or was something else going on? Really struggling to understand that bit!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63973961

Given his political/power aspirations I think any lavender marriage was designed for his benefit as much (or more than) his.

He wore a lavender cravat to their wedding at Colin Beattie’s converted church gaff like it was all some sort of joke they were playing on the masses.

So the “ring fenced for indyref2” sum of 600k has never been fully accounted for? Murrell been done for £400k of it. It’s still clearly not available.

Fools and their money…..

It is mind blowing that he got away with it for so long, if he’d not bought that motor home, likely it would never have been discovered?

Not just being gay which I don’t think most people care about, but I have seen rumours and accusations of inappropriate behaviour and paying for sex but I don’t know if saying what rumours you’ve heard is allowed! Guess I will be deleted if not.

So Nicola Sturgeon apparently answered nothing other than no comment during 7 hours of police questioning. Innocent my fucking arse.

So why was she released?

I think that the issue is dishonesty. Of people want to enter into marriages or relationships for whatever reasons that is entirely up to them. It’s none of our business. UNLESS that person is an elected official portraying themselves as happily married when they are secretly gay. Being gay is not a big deal and has not been a big deal for years. Ruth Davidson was out and proud and got no stick for it at all.

And she’s doubling down on it now with the whole profound distress bollicks.

the problem is that Scotland’s establishment is small. All the politicians, civil servants, senior lawyers all know each other, went to school together and uni together. Very incestuous.

Because Peter Murrell took the fall.

If anyone knows anything about embezzlement, particularly at this scale.

It's NEVER a lone figure acting on their own accord.

There are always other people involved, there's just no paper trail.

For an organisation like the SNP which will have effective directors and treasurers and auditors, several people will have been involved. The others just weren't as careless as buying campervans directly with the money as their partner was the first minister of the country.

Exactly. Sturgeon signed off the finances. Sturgeon was vicious to anyone asking questions about the finances. She knew.

😱😱😱

Yep exactly this and she’s didn’t want anyone looking into the SNP finances. There is a video.

I’d hazard a guess it’s a lot more than this amount that he has embezzled.

But oor wee Nicky often suffers from memory loss and fails to recall on all sorts of matters. Poor wee Nicola. Even though she regularly wore a necklace bought with stolen money.

'I'm the man with the money,' Murrell told Shetland jeweller www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg5pp2pee7go

I've never voted Conservative in my life and have no plans to start, but when I look at their record on who they elect to be leader and compare it with the other national parties they have had a much more diverse group in recent years. Labour hasn't yet had a single leader who wasn't a white heterosexual male. They are good at talking the talk on diversity but it's not reflected in who they elect when it comes to the very top job. Maybe the SNP is similar.

BBC Radio Scotland have a call in regarding the Murrell /Sturgeon situation

Joanna Cherry’s comments have been excellent

I had to pop over to Gransnet to have a quick look on what the resident (most rabid) SNP supporter had to say and sure enough she’s blaming Westminster and still intends to carry on donating as do her friends and family. The hatred of the English and Westminster blinds them to reality. This is how Murrell and Sturgeon got away with it for so long. I think 400k is probably a conservative estimate and others had their snouts in the trough along with them.