Mugs in drawers and watches in cupboards: What police pictures tell us about Peter Murrell’s illicit purchases

Other items found at SNP headquarters included a £195 notepad from Smythson, a £2,396 tea set and various writing folders.

He was interviewed by detectives in June 2023 as part of Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform Sturgeon. But he has always maintained his innocence and last year he was told he was no longer under police investigation.

On May 31 this year, BBC correspondent Laura Kuenssberg asked the former prime minister if he knew about the expensive watches, pens and coffee machines his estranged husband had bought.

Sturgeon said: “I never saw these hours until I was asked about them as part of a criminal investigation…..we were earning wages that didn’t make me question how we could afford a decent coffee machine.”

In the same TV interview she said of Peter Murrell: “Not only did he lie and betray me – and if this had been something completely private, that would be bad enough – but it’s more than that.

“He… put me in a really dangerous situation. He subjected me to public slander, humiliation with skeptical fingers pointed at me, allowed me to be seen on camera using things.”