The Painful Dawn of Realization, former SNP MP Natalie McGarry tries to take control of her trial process, application to change her guilty pleas spectacularly backfires, the haunting spectre of prison looms, in mitigation, McGarry claims she has been treated unfairly, is a mother, ill, on meds, seeing a psychiatric nurse, is that really the best she can come up with after doing a law degree?

Dear All

At present, there is a ‘sea of Nationalist’ madness doing the rounds, we have the SNP Cllr Susan Aitken story, we have Pete Wishart throwing in his hat in a bid to be the next Speaker of the House of Commons, and of course the saga of ex SNP MP Natalie McGarry. If you are looking for comedy, it has to be Pete Wishart’s bid to be Speaker, his majority is 21 votes. 21 votes is rather slim, but tradition is that major parties don’t stand against the Speaker due to the nature of their role.

Is Pete Wishart, the right man for the job, does he carry a sense of destiny about with him, has he earned the respect of his peers across the House of Commons?

No, no and no!

As to Susan Aitken, her ‘story’ is even less appealing than her looks, part of the Sturgeon clique. How she became leader is a mystery but when you have no talent, you can walk into anything it seems in the SNP. Her current trek is being reported to the Standards Commissioner, it seems on trying to stir up a bucket of shit against Labour Cllr Frank McAveety has attracted a storm of protest.

The award for a ‘Greeting Tragedy’ however must go to former SNP MP Natalie McGarry. It seems that after pleading guilty, and getting two of the charges against her dropped, she has lost a bid to withdraw pleas of guilty over embezzling more than £25,600 from pro-independence organisations. It could be that having pled guilty; the former law graduate has woken up to what guilty means?

Guilty means guilty.

Guilty in her case should also mean severe curtailment of social life, early to bed, no pubs, no clubs, no holidays, no gym, no internet, limited TV and no hubby, no access to power assisted comfort, and before anyone says ‘lightsaber’, I meant the other ‘toy’ that buzzes.

When McGarry appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court, instead of being sentenced to a lengthy spell in prison, her brief, Allan MacLeod, representing her applied to withdraw the plea to a not guilty; His rationale was to claim there was "undue pressure" on her to admit the offences.

So, where did this alleged undue pressure come from?

Apparently from the action of her former solicitor, former counsel and the Sheriff, in Court you can hear almost anything, Natalie McGarry’s pitch is that she is a victim but felt she had no choice other than to tender a plea of guilty. Can you imagine what the Sheriff must have thought about this tact, apparently he was not happy. The Sheriff Paul Crozier rejected the motion spun out over almost an hour-and-a-half, and said he had "listened very carefully to what was said".   

Sheriff Paul Crozier said the court had "bent over backwards" to help her.

Her brief, Allan MacLeod also added something to the proceedings when he said:

“Her position to date is that while she accepts that her financial organisation may have been lacking, somewhat haphazard, at no point has she ever accepted that she dishonestly appropriated any of these funds.”

Natalie McGarry, pleaded guilty to two charges of embezzlement when she appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on April 24. To be clear that would be embezzlement from two organisations. But now with a trusted legal eagle beside her, she is saying she is innocent…… remarkable.

Given her past history of a loud mouth and unable to shut her gob, does her next defence tactic appear to be that she has a clone running about the place?

The petrol on the flames wasn’t helped by McGarry’s lawyer saying he wanted the sheriff to remove himself from the case, which her lawyer later withdrew presumably as that panned rather badly with the Sheriff.

Apparently Sheriff Paul Crozier didn’t say, ‘we are all in this together to the bitter end’.

Natalie McGarry pleaded guilty to embezzling £21,000 from Women for Independence in her role as treasurer of the organisation and also admitted embezzling £4,661.02 in the course of her role as treasurer, secretary and convener of the Glasgow Regional Association of the SNP. Given her background in law which presumably covered business law, are we to believe that she is a cretin, given she passed a law degree?

I have to say that through-out this case, the highlight that sticks out for me is failing to transfer charitable donations to Perth and Kinross food bank. The online commentary from ordinary on various news outlets is one of anger and contempt.

The most poorest and vulnerable people suffered due to Natalie McGarry’s actions, not my take, the director of the foodbank which is why the calls for sympathy are bizarre.

Natalie McGarry didn’t come from a hard up family.

In law, you have a thing called mitigation post verdict which gives your lawyer a chance to tell a sob story, her lawyer said McGarry lived a "very isolated existence".

I don’t know about you but according to the press, Natalie McGarry lives in Clarkston, last time I checked, it wasn’t anywhere near Mongolia. Plenty of buses, trains, taxis going through there, nice parks, libraries, shops. So “very isolated existence”, does her husband put her in a box under the stairs when his pals come round?

We have also learned that she allegedly suffering from post-natal depression, always good to stick in ‘I am a mother’, pulling on the old heart strings on two fronts, motherhood and illness. I bet Sheriff Paul Crozier has never heard that before, still to cement the illness claim, she is said to be on medication, and is seeing a psychiatric nurse. Luckily for Natalie, if she gets prison, she will meet plenty of people she can continue with her medication, and get help for post-natal depression and access a psychiatric nurse, so that takes care of these issues.

I think basically what Natalie McGarry is saying is that she doesn’t want to go to jail.

Finally, I have said all along that ex SNP MP Natalie McGarry deserves to be put in prison, I never got to name her in open court regarding the case against Tommy Ball, but her downfall is overdue and self-inflicted.

Sheriff Paul Crozier rejected her bid to withdraw the guilty pleas saying “there can be no doubt what she was pleading guilty to”, I would have allowed her to withdraw the guilty pleas and go to trial.

The Sheriff is within his rights to issue his ruling, and he has clearly cited the time this case has gone on and that the court had "bent over backwards" to help her. Natalie McGarry goes back to Court on May 10^th to find out her fate from Sheriff Paul Crozier. Natalie McGarry shouldn’t get special treatment nor should she get beyond what the law prescribes; just treated the same way as anyone else. I know a Sheriff in passing; they said to me that the public would have a high expectation of McGarry being jailed.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University