By Alan Roden
The blue forensic tent erected outside the home of Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon was, according to the SNP’s former communications chief, part of a “grotesque circus”.
Murray Foote said he was prepared to bet on there being no charges following the conclusion of the probe into party finances, arguing in the pages of the Daily Record that it might be a “wild goose chase”.
Making political predictions is a notoriously risky game, even for well-respected and seasoned observers like Foote, who previously edited the newspaper.
But he was far from alone.
Another former top aide, Noel Dolan, argued that police action during what was known as Operation Branchform was “completely over the top”.
“I believe the police behaviour in the use of tents outside and invading the former first minister’s home has been very heavy handed,” Sturgeon’s one-time right-hand-man said.
Dolan called for the way Police Scotland handled the matter to be scrutinised by the Scottish Parliament. Instead, it is now Murrell’s behaviour that is the subject of intense demands for a Holyrood inquiry.
Another critic of Police Scotland’s actions was former SNP MP Allan Dorans, who told The National: “In my 15-year career as a police officer in the Metropolitan Police, I never knew any occasions where a tent was erected during the search of premises in relation to the investigation of a case of alleged financial crime.”
His Holyrood party colleague James Dornan, who stood down at this year’s election, even resorted to conspiracy theories and bizarrely likened the reporting of the arrests to that of serial killer Fred West.
“The fact that the police and the media seem to have some kind of collusion about making sure the media are in attendance when the slightest thing happens, it’s like Fred West’s house, when they come to look for a paper trail,” he said.
As Murrell faces up to a lengthy sentence at His Majesty’s pleasure, those who were so swift to publicly blast the police investigation now have time to repent at leisure.
Police Scotland’s work got underway back in March 2021 when it first received a complaint about the SNP’s finances. Questions about missing money had been circulating online since the previous autumn.
“As Murrell faces up to a lengthy sentence at His Majesty’s pleasure, those who were so swift to publicly blast the police investigation now have time to repent at leisure”
Operation Branchform was launched in July 2021, the start of an investigation that finally reached its legal conclusion nearly five years later in the High Court in Edinburgh.
Working from the Scottish Crime Campus at Gartcosh, a team of detectives painstakingly pieced together a complex puzzle – uncovering evidence that Murrell had used cash donated by SNP supporters to buy luxury goods from scores of retailers.
The list of items is extraordinary: a Montblanc fountain pen worth £4,225, Lalique salt and pepper grinders (£2,618.16), gourmet coffee beans, video games, a £110 pencil sharpener, and curry sauce paste.
The sensitive work by officers took them across the country – with the owner of a Shetland jewellery store telling the BBC how he was interviewed about the sale of a gold pendant to Murrell (the same item which an emotional Sturgeon said she “loved” in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg).
Intriguingly, Police Scotland has said the “extensive enquiries” even spread across Europe, going some way to explaining how Branchform cost more than £2 million.
The most unforgettable moment came in April 2023, not long after Sturgeon resigned as first minister, with the blue forensic tent erected outside the Glasgow home she shared with Murrell.
It was co-ordinated with a raid on the SNP’s headquarters off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, and the seizure of a motorhome outside Murrell’s mother’s house in Dunfermline.
“Some of those most critical were the very people who had been robbed; their ire should have been directed at Murrell, not the force”
The £125,000 motorhome, first exposed in the pages of The Scottish Mail on Sunday, has since become a byword for political scandal that is likely to be used for decades to come.
The striking images of the blue tent fueled anger among some of Sturgeon’s most loyal supporters, later forcing then chief constable Sir Iain Livingstone to insist the criminal inquiry was “diligent, thorough and proportionate”.
Ironically, some of those most critical were the very people who had been robbed; their ire should have been directed at Murrell, not the force.
Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston, who had oversight of Branchform, specifically addressed the blue tent when interviewed by journalists following Murrell’s guilty plea.
“The tent was placed there to ensure the integrity of the investigations of what we were removing from the house,” he told the assembled media.
“There were critics who accused officers of ‘dragging their heels’, but the reality is that Murrell had gone to great lengths to cover up his crimes”
“And the fact is, any breach of that integrity could have jeopardised the case – and we may not be in the position we are today, where we have Peter Murrell pleading guilty to a significant charge at the High Court.”
Huge financial investigations like this inevitably take time.
There were critics who accused officers of “dragging their heels”, but the reality is that Murrell had gone to great lengths to cover up his crimes.
The list of items totalling more than £400,000 explains why it took so long.
There are some who would also argue that Sturgeon’s police interview in which she reportedly answered “no comment” didn’t help speed things up. The former first minister was released without charge and was told last year that she was no longer under investigation by police.
Officers submitted their report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in May 2024, which does raise questions about why it took so long for Murrell to finally appear in the High Court.
There are bigger questions, however.
As Foote asked in The Courier last month, admitting he was “very wrong about Peter Murrell”, “what on earth possessed him to so catastrophically undermine every cornerstone of his life?”
We may never know.
But we do know that the blue tent was needed, that police officers were diligently doing their job, and they have now been undeniably vindicated.