Shock at a brutal murder in a slowly gentrifying neighbourhood turned to disbelief yesterday when it emerged that privately educated Wran, who stands to inherit a sizeable chunk of her father's estimated A$40 million ($44 million) fortune, was implicated.
After a night in a police cell, she appeared at Liverpool Local Court in southwestern Sydney, charged with murder, attempted murder and aggravated break and enter. Her barrister, Winston Terracini, SC, one of Sydney's highest-profile silks, said she would plead not guilty but would not, for the moment, be applying for bail.
Lee, with whom Wran was arrested at Liverpool train station on Wednesday, was charged with the same offences, as was Haines, who was arrested on Tuesday.
According to Fairfax, Wran - whose father died in April at 87 following a long battle with dementia - has told police she was "terrified" and "desperate" to buy ice, or methamphetamine, on Sunday night.
She was "numb on ice", she said, when she accompanied Lee and Haines to the flat of McNulty, said to have been a musician, heroin addict and small-time dealer. A police source quoted by the Daily Telegraph said, "the next thing she knows, they were laying into him".
Police allege the trio went to McNulty's flat with the joint intention of killing him.
Reports say Wran - said to have acquired a "bikie" boyfriend and tattoos - had been struggling emotionally since her father's death.
The paper quoted a source as saying: "She's been sleeping in the streets". Fairfax said that, when arrested, she had no money or credit cards on her.
Neville Wran, who was given a state funeral attended by Labor luminaries, became a QC and NSW's longest-serving Premier, running the state from 1976 to 1986. The family reportedly owns a A$10 million house in an exclusive Sydney neighbourhood, a A$10 million waterside apartment and a A$2 million farm.
Harriet - Wran's daughter from his second marriage to Jill Hickson and a god-daughter of Kerry Packer - attended elite private schools and, according to her Facebook page, has been studying modern and ancient history and philosophy at Sydney University.
An unnamed friend told Nine News that the murder charge was "beyond comprehension".
Neighbours described McNulty as an "affable, friendly" man and loving father to his 9-year-old daughter, who moved to Sydney from Byron Bay two years ago. One friend said he was struggling to overcome his addiction, and was on a methadone programme.
After Wran's death in a Sydney nursing home, Hickson became embroiled in a battle over his will with the three children of his previous marriage. The Wrans had had a stormy relationship, splitting up in 2006 but reconciling in 2011.
Flying into Sydney airport from Brisbane yesterday to support her daughter, a tearful Hickson said: "I can hardly walk, let alone talk."
