Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the Scottish National Party, has had his legal aid withdrawn after being convicted of embezzlement. The publicly funded assistance, which had been in place since last year, is no longer available to him.
Legal aid is a form of government support intended to help defendants meet the cost of legal representation. In this case, that backing has been stopped in the wake of the guilty verdict against the party’s former chief executive.
“Government-funded legal support for Peter Murrell, in place since last year, has been withdrawn following his embezzlement conviction.”
— Kings Journal reporting
Public funding ended after guilty verdict
Murrell had been receiving the support for more than a year before the decision to withdraw it. The change follows his conviction, which the original reporting links directly to the end of that funding.
The development concerns one of the most senior figures to have served in the SNP’s professional structure. As chief executive, Murrell occupied a central administrative role in the party. The conviction for embezzlement, and the subsequent withdrawal of legal aid, mark a further public consequence of the case.
“The former SNP chief executive is no longer eligible for the government-funded legal assistance he had been receiving.”
— Kings Journal reporting
What is known
- Peter Murrell is the former chief executive of the Scottish National Party.
- He has been convicted of embezzlement.
- He had been receiving government-funded legal aid since last year.
- That legal aid has now been withdrawn.
Further particulars of the conviction, including any sentence and the precise grounds on which legal aid was ended, were not set out in the material available for this report. Kings Journal will not speculate beyond the facts that have been established: a former SNP chief executive, convicted of embezzlement, has lost the public legal funding he had been granted since last year.
