Harriet Wran pleads guilty to ice possession
The recovering drug addict daughter of former NSW premier Neville Wran was found with thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods linked to a spate of break ins.
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The recovering drug addict daughter of former NSW premier Neville Wran was found with thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods linked to a spate of break ins.
Less than three years after being released from prison, Harriet Wran admits she’s going through another hard time after pleading guilty to ice possession today.
There may be more pain to come with police investigating possible fraud charges after discovering a stack of stolen credit cards, laptops and mail from Newcastle, Sydney and the Central Coast in her car at a petrol station last week.
The 30-year-old sat alone at Wyong Local Court and clasped her hands together as solicitor Alexander Angel-Graham entered guilty pleas to the drug charge as well goods in custody and not displaying P-plates.
Asked outside court whether it had been a tough time for her, Wran said “yeah it is” before climbing into a waiting ute.
Police spotted Wran’s Holden Colorado leaving “an area of high suspicious activity” at a deserted industrial estate in Lucca Street, Wyong between 2am and 3.30am last Wednesday, court documents show.
When the highway patrol car pulled her ute over at a nearby service station a male passenger ran off into bushland while dumping a large amount of unopened letters addressed to multiple people.
They also found seven stolen credit cards, six laptops, three mobile phones, seven USB sticks, an iPad, a wallet, academic transcripts, a Medicare card and a pocket watch in the back of her car.
“Some of this property has been proved to have come from various break and enters recently,” Senior Constable Damien Slade said in bail documents.
“The offences are not in the high scale of seriousness but they may lead to other more serious offences, which the accused has not been charged with.”
Officers also found syringes protruding from a pocket under Wran’s jumper and 0.96 grams of crystal methamphetamine.
Police believe the prosecution has a strong case which relies on Wran’s interaction with officers at the scene and the property seized, but don’t believe she’ll cop a jail term for those offences if convicted, bail documents show.
The man who abandoned her still hasn’t been found.
Wran was bailed to continue living at her mother Jill Hickson Wran’s sprawling 50-hectare property at Ravensdale on the Central Coast while she studies agribusiness at New England University.
Under her night-time curfew, she is not to leave the farm between 8pm and 6am unless accompanied by Mrs Hickson Wran.
The respected publisher brought the former private schoolgirl back from the brink of bulimia, helped her daughter battle bipolar disorder and has supported her through stints in drug rehab in the past.
Wran spent two years in jail after pleading guilty to robbery and being an accessory to the murder of drug dealer Daniel McNulty at a Redfern housing commission unit in 2014.
Her then-boyfriend of just two weeks Michael Lee stabbed McNulty to death during the botched robbery and was jailed for a minimum of 13 years.
The former Church of England Grammar School student was originally charged with murder but it was downgraded and Wran was released from Silverwater Jail in September 2016.
Her parole expired last August.
Wran had dabbled in drugs at Sydney University where she got a diploma in journalism and has struggled with mental health issues since high school.
But her father’s death in 2014 sent Wran into a downward spiral, her 2016 sentencing hearing was told.
Wran’s matter will return to Wyong Local Court on May 15.
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