Harriet Wran was born into a life of privilege in Sydney. Picture: Facebook

Ice addicts living at the McKell public housing tower in Sydney’s Redfern where Wran witnessed her ice addict boyfriend stab a drug dealer to death in August 2014 claim that the murder occurred after a “$70 bad ice deal gone wrong”.

They told news.com.au that Wran’s then boyfriend of two weeks, Michael Lee, and indigenous Redfern local Lloyd Edward Haines had gone to Unit B30 in the McKell building because of a “bad deal”.

“They’d spent $70 on ice and it was no good. It was s**t,” an addict said. “They were going back to get their money back or some more drugs.”

Harriet Wran, the youngest daughter of the late barrister and former NSW premier Neville Wran, is awaiting sentence for accessory to murder. Pictures: FacebookSource:Facebook

Wran looked gaunt and pale from an ice addiction when pictured after her 2014 arrest. Picture: NSW PoliceSource:Supplied

A fuller faced Wran from the jail diet inside Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre. Picture: Paul Miller/AAPSource:AAP

The NSW Supreme Court has heard that Wran, then aged 26, was unaware that Lee, 36, was carrying a knife and that any violence was planned, after she was used as a “decoy” to gain entry into the flat.

In the ensuing attack, Lee stabbed ice dealer Daniel McNulty, 48, and McNulty’s flatmate Brett ­Fitzgerald was stabbed in the neck and hit in the head by Haines with a mason’s hammer.

Wran was reportedly numb in the throes of an ice addiction which saw the daughter of one of Sydney’s wealthiest couples living rough and hanging out for her next ice hit.

She admitted in court the day after her 2014 arrest, just four months after the death of her father, the former NSW Premier Neville Wran, that she had “no fixed address”.

$100-A-WEEK GRANNY FLAT

But Wran’s life had been spiralling out of control long before she was placed in a protection cell at Silverwater Women’s Correctional centre in Western Sydney.

The former private schoolgirl once flitted between the glamorous homes her father and book publisher mother Jill owned in exclusive Sydney suburbs Woollahra and Palm Beach.

But by her early 20s, Wran was living on Centrelink benefits in an $100-a-week granny flat.

The squalid housing commission flat in Redfern, Sydney where ice dealer Daniel McNulty was murdered. Picture: Adam TaylorSource:News Corp Australia

Harriet Wran pictured being taken down to the cells at the NSW Supreme Court. Picture: AAP/David MoirSource:AAP

Outwardly, Fairfax News reported, Wran looked like the product of an entitled upbringing that she was.

She wore expensive fur coats, owned a little dog and looked like the sort of attractive young woman you would see in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.

But behind the doors of the granny flat she was renting with a male friend in Hunter’s Hill on Sydney’s north shore, Wran’s life was in disarray.

The couple rented the property for three months, during which the landlord said Wran rarely left the premises and groups of men were constant visitors at all hours.

When NSW Police turned up and arrested Wran’s male friend over “the report of a kidnapping”, they seized bags of evidence and took her in for questioning.

Four months before her fall from grace, Harriet Wran (centre) is pictured with brother Hugo (left) and Labor MP Tanya Plibersek (right) following the State Funeral for the siblings’ father, former NSW Premier Neville Wran. Picture: AAP/Paul MillerSource:Supplied

Harriet Wran, pictured in her younger years with her mother, Jill Wran, in a still from an SBS-TV special following her arrest, From privilege to prison for Harriet Wran. Picture: SBSSource:Supplied

Wran never returned to the property and the landlords found a virtual ‘crack den’ inside the granny flat which was strewn with pipes, cigarette cartons, dirty plates and clothes.

The situation only came to light following Wran’s arrest for murder two years later, the landlords told Fairfax.

Wran did attempt to fight her ice addiction, but following her father’s death from dementia in April 2014, her resolve unravelled.

In a statement to the court from Wran, she was a homeless and “self-confessed ice user” living on unemployment benefits of $560 a fortnight.

This week, after almost two weeks on remand, murder charges were dropped against Wran and she pleaded guilty to robbery and accessory to murder over the attack that left McNulty dead.

Former NSW Premier Neville Wran, who suffered from dementia before his death aged 87, with daughter Harriet in 2011. Picture: Lee BesfordSource:Supplied

Her co-accused, Haines and Lee had already pleaded guilty to murder and robbery in company causing wounding/grievous bodily harm and will be sentenced tomorrow on Friday, July 8.

Wran, who has put on weight behind bars and looks healthier than the pale and skinny young woman photographed after her arrest, has detailed her fall from privilege to prison.

In letters from behind bars, she has told the story about how it all went wrong for the girl who was thrust into the spotlight the day she was born.

‘I COULDN’T LOVE HER MORE’

Following her daughter’s guilty plea in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Wednesday, Jill Wran offered a small glimpse into her relationship with her daughter.

“I couldn’t love her more,” she said.

The Wran family, including Jill, is used to the press hounding them. Outside a Sydney hospital the day Wran was born, she was met by reporters. It was a happier time and she grinned from ear to ear.

“I cannot express how I feel,” she said at the time. “I am so happy.”

Wran was born into a world where she was offered every opportunity to succeed. Her father was coming off 10 years in office and would use extensive retirement benefits to afford a big home in the leafy eastern suburbs.

She went to school at the exclusive Ascham School in Darling Point and later Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School in Darlinghurst.

Growing up, her father remained a very public figure. He danced with Princess Diana at a function in Sydney in 1996, one of hundreds of public events he was wheeled out for.

Former NSW Premiere Neville Wran with his children Harriet, 8, and Hugo, 5, at opening of Disney stage show at Sydney’s State Theatre.Source:News Corp Australia

But age got the better of him post-2000. He entered an aged care facility in 2012 and Wran’s life began to unravel.

After attending Sydney University, where she studied arts, the goddaughter of Kerry Packer began work with Foxtel. She was a producer for the Weather Channel but, outside work, dabbled in soft drugs and partied.

Then she discovered ice, otherwise known as crystal meth, a drug that makes addicts violent, unpredictable and offers them a feeling of invincibility.

Distance grew between Wran and her family, including younger brother Hugo. Her long-term relationship with successful aeroplane instructor Adrian Deluca came to an end.

She spent time in a rehab clinic in the coastal suburb of Bronte in 2013 in an effort to kick her habit.

A year later, she had relapsed and got caught up with the wrong people.

Among them was then-boyfriend Michael Lee. The pair, alongside Lee’s friend Lloyd Edward Haines, made a decision that would change their lives forever.

Neville Wran with wife Jill with baby Harriet on May 16, 1988. Picture: Rob DrewSource:News Corp Australia

STABBED IN THE BACK, NECK AND STOMACH

Details of what happened inside McNulty’s Redfern apartment are emerging in court. It’s believed Wran was used as a decoy to convince the 48-year-old public housing resident to open his door.

When he did, Lee and Haines burst through behind her and demanded money and drugs.

Soon, McNulty was cornered in a bedroom and stabbed in the chest, stomach and neck. Wran was in the lounge room when the attack was happening but did not try to stop it.

According to court documents, Wran played no part in the murder and did not know Lee had a knife, or Haines a balaclava. The court accepted she didn’t “contemplate that a wounding or stabbing, or other substantial injury might occur during the robbery”.

She made a panicked 000-call after McNulty’s death but it was far from a confession. In the days after the brutal attack, she “maintained and harboured” Lee at the home of a friend.

After her arrest, she told police she was high at the time of McNulty’s death and had cobbled together $70 for the score.

Lee and Haines have already pleaded guilty to McNulty’s murder.

The squalid public housing block apartments at 55 Walker St, Redfern in Sydney, where ice dealer Daniel McNulty was murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. Picture: Adam TaylorSource:News Corp Australia

From prison, Wran wrote to Dennan Chew, a Sydney-based personal trainer she met at rehab and with whom she shared a brief relationship.

The letters provide an insight into her gradual slide from party girl to hard drug user and the regret she expressed once sober.

“I’ve been clean since I got here, so nearly three months,” she wrote in letters obtained by Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. “It seems I finally received the wake-up call I needed to stop for good. I just hope it’s not a 20-year life lesson.”

She said what happened to McNulty was the result of getting mixed up with bad people.

“It was my mistake of being in the company of such low life that landed me here.

“I can’t believe I’m in here charged with murder. Quite a price to pay for total stupidity. What happened that night was really awful, and I will be haunted by it for the rest of my life.”

Wran has been given a second chance, one her family hopes she will use. She has an opportunity to rebuild, thanks in part to a settlement over her father’s estate following his death in April 2014.

In a letter to Chew, Wran talked about turning her life around. She said she was “super excited” about applying to study ancient history through Macquarie University.

With the support of her family — her mother remains by her side — she will get a chance to do that and so much more.