From privilege to prisoner: Harriet Wran's fall from grace

Harriet Wran is the socialite daughter of political royalty. Now she is also an alleged ice addict, adorned not with jewellery, but handcuffs and a forensic suit.

Harriet Wran, 26, was charged with murder, attempted murder and aggravated break and enter over a double stabbing at Redfern on Sunday night.

The daughter of the former NSW premier Neville Wran reportedly told police officers she was "numb on ice" when a fatal knife fight erupted at a notorious Sydney housing commission block.

When officers arrested her at 5pm on Wednesday, she was dishevelled and destitute, with no money or personal belongings on her.

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Her barrister, top silk Winston Terracini SC, told Liverpool Local Court the following day that his client was likely to fight the charges.

He indicated Wran would plead not guilty to murdering drug dealer Daniel McNulty, who was stabbed in the back and through the lungs - and to wounding a man staying with him, Brett Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald, 42, was also stabbed multiple times in the attack, and he remains in St Vincent's Hospital in a stable condition.

Michael Lee, 35, nicknamed "Asia", was also arrested on Wednesday, after Lloyd Haines was charged with murder on Tuesday.

The three are allegedly captured on security cameras at the Redfern crime scene, and at nearby Poets Corner in Surry Hills.

Haines allegedly told detectives they had gone to the unit to purchase crystal meth.

Police allege Michael Lee had shown Haines he was armed with a couple of knives before they entered the Redfern unit block.

Daniel McNulty was stabbed to death during a dispute at a Redfern housing commission block. Photo: Facebook

Central to Harriet Wran's defence will be the extent to which she reasonably knew what could possibly transpire inside.

Wran did not appear in court on Thursday, and will remain behind bars for the next two months.

She is due to appear at Central Local Court in October.

At the time of the stabbings, it is believed that Wran had been living rough and battling a drug problem.

The crime scene where drug dealer Daniel McNulty was stabbed to death at Redfern. Photo: ABC

The 26-year-old is believed to have relapsed just before her father's death in April.

At the time, she said in a police statement that she never thought her co-accused would "do what they did", that she "froze when it happened", and became "terrified" about what might happen to her.

What is happening to her, now, has astonished society's elite, many of whom stood alongside her at Sir Neville Wran's state funeral in May, before her spiral.

"I was shocked, and obviously tragic circumstances but it's obviously a police inquiry," the NSW Premier Mike Baird said on Thursday.

Whilst the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the matter is in the hands of the police.

"I attended Neville Wran's funeral and I met the family there. We don't know what's happening here."

From first lady to broken woman

Whatever the outcome of the case it is both a remarkable and tragic fall from grace for a young Sydney woman.

Harriet Wran had a private school education, an heiress, with family friends who included her father's former business partner Malcolm Turnbull.

On Thursday morning her distressed mother Jill Wran flew from interstate to be briefed by the Wran family lawyers.

Mrs Wran arrived at Sydney Airport after a flight from Brisbane and was led away to be briefed by the best defence lawyers money can buy, led by top barrister Winston Terracini.

The lights of television news cameras in Terminal 3 more blinding than any of the limelight she shared as the wife of celebrated Premier Neville Wran, mixing with the rich, famous and royalty.

Princess Diana dances with Mr Wran at The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Dinner Dance in Sydney in 2006. Photo: AAP

Also known as Jill Hickson, she was a public figure in her own right; patron of the Sydney Theatre company, a publicist and literary agent.

On Thursday, her toughest job yet was the role of supportive mother for a daughter accused of murder.

As Harriett Wran read a passage from the Shakespearian play The Tempest at her father's State funeral at Sydney's Town Hall, no one could have anticipated the drama that awaited this famous family less than four months later.

Until Thursday, it was the last time the Wrans were seen in public, farewelling a giant of Australian politics, a loving father and husband.

"I'm grateful for his love, for our children, and the magic during nearly 40 years together," Jill Hickson said.

Wran's mother Jill Hickson arrives at Sydney Airport on Thursday. Photo: 7News

It was that love that delivered his children nothing but the best. Harriett, the goddaughter of Kerry Packer was educated at the elite girls schools SCEGGS and Ascham.

Her Eastern Suburbs lifetyle was far from removed from the working class her father championed as Labor leader.

But since Neville Wran's death Harriet struggled to cope, reportedly sleeping rough after leaving the family's Woollahra mansion.

She is said to be broke and homeless, despite the wealth she's set to inherit from her father's $40 million dollar estate.

It is a fortune still at the centre of a legal war between her mother and Kim Sheftel, the daughter from Mr Wran's first marriage.

Now Jill Wran is bracing herself for another court battle to prove her daughter's innocence.