Scotland\u2019s former first minister says she will not visit Murrell in prison, where he is serving five-year sentence for embezzling SNP funds<\/p>\n
Nicola Surgeon has said she will not visit her estranged husband, Peter Murrell, in prison, has stopped speaking to him and views herself as a \u201cmug\u201d for worrying about his wellbeing and mental health earlier this year.<\/p>\n
During a podcast recording at the Edinburgh festival fringe, Scotland\u2019s former first minister said Murrell had lied to her until the day he pleaded guilty to embezzling more than \u00a3400,000 from the Scottish National party.<\/p>\n
He was imprisoned for five years in June, and Sturgeon revealed she had not spoken to him since then. She told the broadcaster Iain Dale she had only discovered Murrell was due to plead guilty a week before he appeared in court.<\/p>\n
She later found out he had been negotiating his plea for months.<\/p>\n
\u201c[That] hit me like a tonne of bricks,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was still lying to me right up until the day he pled guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cHe was very isolated over that period, he very rarely left the house, he wasn\u2019t communicative, I was a bit worried about his wellbeing and his mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, now I think: \u2018What a mug, why were you worried about him?\u2019 He didn\u2019t worry about me. He didn\u2019t worry at all about what he was doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he has subjected me to is beyond anything I could ever have comprehended. I don\u2019t understand why he did it, he had no need to do it. I don\u2019t think I will ever understand his motivations.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut whatever that motivation was, he could not have stopped and ever thought about me. But I was, until recently, still worrying about him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if she would visit him in prison, Sturgeon replied: \u201cNo. I\u2019m not going to speak to him, I\u2019m not going to visit him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former first minister said that when Murrell was in court she was still finding out details of the purchases he had made using party funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, he never really levelled with me,\u201d she said. \u201cThe day he pled guilty, I was still learning about some of the detail of what he had done for the first time. I suddenly realised I had been living with somebody that I never really knew properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something for me to come to terms with, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019m there yet, but also for my family to come to terms with. It\u2019s a really difficult process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murrell, 61, spent the money on items including a motorhome, a Jaguar SUV and a VW Golf, boutique cosmetics, iPads and a pair of Lalique Feuilles salt and pepper grinders worth \u00a32,618.<\/p>\n