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RNZ News
5 days ago
- RNZ News
Convicted murderer Julia Deluney's diaries: Bible verses, cryptocurrency and future plans
Julia Deluney was found guilty of killing her mother, Helen Gregory. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Julia Deluney's diaries, presented as evidence by the Crown during her month-long trial , reveal the highs and lows of cryptocurrency trading, her plans for a Remuera home to retire in, and her grief following the death of her mother. DeLuney was found guilty of murdering Helen Gregory, 79, at the elderly woman's home in Baroda St in Khandallah in January last year. The Crown argued it had been a financially motivated attack, and that DeLuney had been receiving money - or at worst, stealing it - from her mother for at least a year before the murder. Over the course of the trial, her diaries were presented as evidence of her emotional state and financial struggles. They contained little reminders and checklists: "car service, pay credit card $10,000, hair tidy up". But that sat alongside Bible passages, musings about her future, and some existential questions. DeLuney had been a teacher until about 15 years ago. In recent years she had turned her hand to trading cryptocurrency. The court saw photographs of the diary pages, with typed transcriptions alongside. Some entries contained references to FET, WOO, DXY, buying on red days, selling on green days, FOMO of "green candles" (good trades) and speculation about when the US regulating body would approve the first Bitcoin ETF. In early December, she wrote: "Bitcoin hit, $40,000, waiting for FET to break through." Some entries contained Bible passages: "Give back what the locusts have taken away, God, double what he had before! I, Julia, stand for the word of the Lord." The Crown pointed to other entries as a sign she had been struggling mentally - like this one in mid-December: "I need to remember how tough and discouraging these past five-six years have been waiting for such a time as this." Helen Gregory. Photo: Supplied As December passed, her diaries begin to reveal a desire to cash out and step back. December 16, 2023: "Having a healthy pullback today after a big green week.... Yes, I'm desperately impatient to resume my life after six years of staring at charts. It's been a terribly traumatic and challenging period of my life. I need to leave this crypto world behind me soon. Please dear lord." And on the last day of the year, there was a glimpse into her dreams for the future. December 31, 2023: "100x from here and we're out of here! New life begins! Remuera goal for 2024, 10m. Generational family home, pool [...], great kitchen, bathrooms, 4+ bedrooms, beautiful tropical garden." The diaries showed how turbulent cryptocurrency trading could be. One early January day, DeLuney wrote the markets were "waking up" - and the next, "Market crashed. Liquidations everywhere." DeLuney's bank records showed between January 2023 and January 2024, she spent more than $155,000 on crypto-currency investments. Cryptocurrency consultant Nicolas Turnbull gave evidence to help the jury understand some of the jargon, but he said there seemed to be "no real structure" to DeLuney's trading. "There's a lot of emotion in it, where if you're trading, and you're doing this as a job ... in my professional opinion you need structure, you need risk management." And as January wore on, the diaries revealed DeLuney's increasing disillusionment with trading. On January 10, she wrote: "It's been an awful year so far, I'm done. Been trying so hard to crack this but as soon as I think it's in my reach, it gets taken away - again and again. I can't keep doing this, I just want a f***ng home and some financial security in old age. It's obviously not happening. F*** life!" On January 24, DeLuney visited her mother to book tickets to the ballet. Her diary entries that day - likely written before she visited her mother that evening - were Bible passages. "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118.24 And: "For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4.13 Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop told the jury in her closing argument they may never know the details of that evening, but "something happened, something changed" - that led to DeLuney violently assaulting her mother. The next entry was on January 26, 2024 - two days after her mother's death: Alongside a to-do list of funeral arrangements, she quoted Romans 8.28: "For all things work together for good to those who love him and that are called according to his purposes" and Matthew 6.33: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all those things shall be added unto you." The funeral took place on February 3 - a "beautiful service". "I'm going to miss you forever my one and only darling, beautiful mum, be at rest and in peace with your Lord and savior Jesus Christ," DeLuney wrote. The court saw diary entries up until February 8: "Dear God, I love and miss mum sooo much, please take care of her. Thank you for blessing me with such a loving, kind and wise mum." The jury took only a day to deliberate, returning their guilty verdict on Wednesday, just before 5pm. DeLuney was remanded in custody, to be sentenced in September.
RNZ News
5 days ago
- RNZ News
Convicted murder Julia Deluney's diaries: Bible verses, cryptocurrency and future plans
Julia Deluney was found guilty of killing her mother, Helen Gregory. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Julia Deluney's diaries, presented as evidence by the Crown during her month-long trial , reveal the highs and lows of cryptocurrency trading, her plans for a Remuera home to retire in, and her grief following the death of her mother. DeLuney was found guilty of murdering Helen Gregory, 79, at the elderly woman's home in Baroda St in Khandallah in January last year. The Crown argued it had been a financially motivated attack, and that DeLuney had been receiving money - or at worst, stealing it - from her mother for at least a year before the murder. Over the course of the trial, her diaries were presented as evidence of her emotional state and financial struggles. They contained little reminders and checklists: "car service, pay credit card $10,000, hair tidy up". But that sat alongside Bible passages, musings about her future, and some existential questions. DeLuney had been a teacher until about 15 years ago. In recent years she had turned her hand to trading cryptocurrency. The court saw photographs of the diary pages, with typed transcriptions alongside. Some entries contained references to FET, WOO, DXY, buying on red days, selling on green days, FOMO of "green candles" (good trades) and speculation about when the US regulating body would approve the first Bitcoin ETF. In early December, she wrote: "Bitcoin hit, $40,000, waiting for FET to break through." Some entries contained Bible passages: "Give back what the locusts have taken away, God, double what he had before! I, Julia, stand for the word of the Lord." The Crown pointed to other entries as a sign she had been struggling mentally - like this one in mid-December: "I need to remember how tough and discouraging these past five-six years have been waiting for such a time as this." Helen Gregory. Photo: Supplied As December passed, her diaries begin to reveal a desire to cash out and step back. December 16, 2023: "Having a healthy pullback today after a big green week.... Yes, I'm desperately impatient to resume my life after six years of staring at charts. It's been a terribly traumatic and challenging period of my life. I need to leave this crypto world behind me soon. Please dear lord." And on the last day of the year, there was a glimpse into her dreams for the future. December 31, 2023: "100x from here and we're out of here! New life begins! Remuera goal for 2024, 10m. Generational family home, pool [...], great kitchen, bathrooms, 4+ bedrooms, beautiful tropical garden." The diaries showed how turbulent cryptocurrency trading could be. One early January day, DeLuney wrote the markets were "waking up" - and the next, "Market crashed. Liquidations everywhere." DeLuney's bank records showed between January 2023 and January 2024, she spent more than $155,000 on crypto-currency investments. Cryptocurrency consultant Nicolas Turnbull gave evidence to help the jury understand some of the jargon, but he said there seemed to be "no real structure" to DeLuney's trading. "There's a lot of emotion in it, where if you're trading, and you're doing this as a job ... in my professional opinion you need structure, you need risk management." And as January wore on, the diaries revealed DeLuney's increasing disillusionment with trading. On January 10, she wrote: "It's been an awful year so far, I'm done. Been trying so hard to crack this but as soon as I think it's in my reach, it gets taken away - again and again. I can't keep doing this, I just want a f***ng home and some financial security in old age. It's obviously not happening. F*** life!" On January 24, DeLuney visited her mother to book tickets to the ballet. Her diary entries that day - likely written before she visited her mother that evening - were Bible passages. "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118.24 And: "For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4.13 Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop told the jury in her closing argument they may never know the details of that evening, but "something happened, something changed" - that led to DeLuney violently assaulting her mother. The next entry was on January 26, 2024 - two days after her mother's death: Alongside a to-do list of funeral arrangements, she quoted Romans 8.28: "For all things work together for good to those who love him and that are called according to his purposes" and Matthew 6.33: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all those things shall be added unto you." The funeral took place on February 3 - a "beautiful service". "I'm going to miss you forever my one and only darling, beautiful mum, be at rest and in peace with your Lord and savior Jesus Christ," DeLuney wrote. The court saw diary entries up until February 8: "Dear God, I love and miss mum sooo much, please take care of her. Thank you for blessing me with such a loving, kind and wise mum." The jury took only a day to deliberate, returning their guilty verdict on Wednesday, just before 5pm. DeLuney was remanded in custody, to be sentenced in September.
RNZ News
7 days ago
- RNZ News
Key moments during the month-long trial of Julia DeLuney
Julia Deluney at the High Court in Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Warning: This article contains graphic images which some readers may find distressing. An outburst from the dock, a "bizarre" conversation with a relative about her dead mother's money at her funeral, and a murdered woman who was "not planning to die tomorrow" - these are some of the pivotal moments during the month-long trial of Julia DeLuney. The trial at the High Court in Wellington lasted four and a half weeks, and the jury took just over a day to reach its verdict . The court heard evidence from forensic experts to accountants, and in the end, the jurors sided with the Crown, finding DeLuney guilty of murdering her 79-year-old mother Helen Gregory in her Baroda Street home in the Wellington suburb of Khandallah on 24 January, 2024. Helen Gregory and Julia DeLuney together on Christmas Day at Gregory's Baroda Street home in 2023, in a photo taken off DeLuney's phone by police. Photo: SUPPLIED Here are some of the trial's notable moments. In the trial's early stages, the jury heard from police officers about how their investigation shifted from unexplained death to murder. Detective Luke Hensley said when he arrived in the hours following the 111 call, the death was not being treated as suspicious. But he said the blood around the house struck him as strange - as did the fact DeLuney had left her mother on the bedroom floor after her alleged fall from the attic, to drive back to Kāpiti to pick up her husband, rather than calling an ambulance. An image from the Khandallah house where 79-year-old Helen Gregory was killed, shown at the trial of Julia Deluney. Photo: Supplied The jury had by then seen photos of blood smeared on the walls in the hallway, and in and around the utility cupboard through which the attic was accessed by way of a ladder built into the back wall. DeLuney told police her mother had climbed into the attic to put away a stack of toilet roll, and fallen, causing a small wound on the back of her head. She said she left her mother in the bedroom lying down, and at that stage, there was not a lot of blood. When she returned to the house with her husband, it looked, in her own words, "like a warzone". An image from the Khandallah house shown at the trial of Julia Deluney. Photo: Supplied Forensic scientist Glenys Knight said she knew quickly she was dealing with a homicide . She said the blood smeared on the hallway walls looked like it had been applied with fabric. Defence lawyer Quentin Duff asked whether it could have been applied by someone staggering around the house. "I've never seen it in my experience," Knight replied. Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop asked the jury: Why would a burglar stage the scene? And how would they know to stage it as a fall from the attic, the same story DeLuney would later tell the police? She said the only person who would benefit from staging the scene was DeLuney herself. Julia DeLuney on CCTV buying a lighter at the Mobil petrol station in Johnsonville, on her way from her mother's to her own home in Paraparaumu, at 9.52pm on 24 January, 2024. Photo: Supplied In trial week three, the court heard from Gregory's brother Peter Wilson, who lives in Australia, who told the court about a conversation he'd had with DeLuney, his niece, at the funeral. "What do you know about the kitchen?" she had asked him. "Is any money hidden in the kitchen?" Wilson said he told her he knew nothing - which he explained to the court was a deliberate withholding of information, as months earlier, he had helped his sister hide money underneath a kitchen drawer. The court had already heard from witnesses about Gregory's mistrust of banks, and the way she hid thousands of dollars around the house - including $50,000 in the freezer, and various amounts wedged between salad bowls. Wilson said the conversation at the funeral was "really bizarre", and then DeLuney asked: "What do you know about Helen's diaries?" to which he also replied, nothing. That wasn't the only shocking piece of evidence to come out of Wilson's testimony. Police at the Baroda Street house in January 2024. Photo: RNZ / Ashleigh McCaull The court heard Gregory had had a fall in September 2023, which Wilson and his wife learned when they dropped in on her the day after a family gathering. DeLuney answered the door and showed them in, and Wilson said when he saw his sister lying in bed, he was shocked. "I thought she was dead," he told the court. "Blew me away." He said to DeLuney, "You have to ring an ambulance," and she said she had already called a relative, who would be there "soon". But Wilson said about 40 minutes passed, with DeLuney tending to her mother, feeding her lemonade through a straw, so he went outside and called the relative himself. "I said [relative's name], um, [Helen's] not very well, and Julia's rung you?" "And [they] said, 'No she hasn't, nobody's rung me today.'" Julia DeLuney pictured on CCTV at the BP station in Johnsonville, on her way to her mother's house, at 5.47pm on 24 January 2024. Photo: Supplied On July 14 - the beginning of trial week four - the court heard audio from a phone call Gregory made to her bank, on the evening of January 23, 2024. The purpose of the call was to take out money to pay withdrawal fees on cryptocurrency profits, which DeLuney had invested in on her behalf. The court would later hear evidence that those fees were "false", and that the profit DeLuney had told her mother about did not exist - she had in fact sent her a screenshot of someone else's cryptocurrency account, which had made a large profit, as though it was her own. DeLuney also asked her mother not to reveal to the bank that she needed the money for anything to do with cryptocurrency. Gregory told the bank employee on the phone: "We're pre-paying a funeral thing. Not that I'm thinking of dying tomorrow or anything." It was met by a collective intake of breath from the public gallery. The Crown later argued this was Gregory handing over the last of her money to her daughter - a potential flash point in their relationship that led to an altercation, and ultimately her death, the next day. The Crown was the first to close its case, with prosecutor Stephanie Bishop running the members of the jury through their version of what happened that night. DeLuney had remained mostly silent for the duration of the trial. The court had heard her statements to police and watched the video interviews, but had not heard from DeLuney herself. She sat in the dock, flanked by two security guards - normal procedure, the justice explained to the jury at the beginning of the trial, and not to be taken as a sign DeLuney was dangerous or presumed guilty. But her outburst came after a CCTV footage was played to the court, showing someone checking the communal skip in the carpark of the DeLuneys' apartment complex in Paraparaumu in the early hours of the morning following the death, after her first interview with police. The jury had seen this footage before, when it was played as evidence, but this time Bishop told the jury what she wanted them to take from it. Julia DeLuney, pictured on CCTV from a camera on the side of a rubbish truck, placing a black bin bag in a rubbish bin at 6.58am on 25 January, 2024. Photo: Supplied "In the morning, having been to the police station to provide a statement, one of them [the DeLuneys] then exits their vehicle and then walks immediately to the skip bin," she said. "Again, members of the jury, what plausible explanation could there be for this?" At that point, DeLuney called out harshly: "Our dogs!" The court had already heard evidence that the DeLuneys owned two dearly loved dogs, which according to police they expressed concern about leaving alone on more than one occasion. A short time later, DeLuney kicked the wall of the dock in front of her, causing a loud thud in the quiet of the courtroom. At the close of the Crown's case, the defence declined to call witnesses, and DeLuney did not give evidence herself . The Justice reminded the jury during his summing up that no guilt should be read into this. Antonio DeLuney, her husband, did not give evidence either. The court had already heard the pair lived together in an apartment in Paraparaumu. On the night of her mother's death, DeLuney sent a photo to Antonio of herself and her mother in her mother's wardrobe, telling him they were trying on clothes. Julia DeLuney and Helen Gregory, pictured in Gregory's walk-in wardrobe. DeLuney sent the photo to her husband Antonio the night of Gregory's death telling him they were trying on clothes. Photo: SUPPLIED Then, she missed a handful of calls and messages from him later in the evening, and had a conversation lasting only 17 seconds before she returned to Paraparaumu to pick him up. The court heard he was asleep when she arrived, but returned to her mother's Baroda St address with her, where they found Gregory badly injured. Both DeLuneys gave statements to the police that night, but Antonio's was not read in court, and he did not give evidence. While he previously sought name suppression alongside his wife's before the case went to trial - both were declined - he does not face charges relating to this event. The jury was sent out to deliberate about 1pm on Tuesday and they reached their verdict just before 5pm on Wednesday. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
23-07-2025
- RNZ News
Julia DeLuney's lawyer won't say if she will appeal murder conviction
Julia DeLuney will be sentenced in September. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii It is not yet known if Julia DeLuney, found guilty of murdering her mother, plans to appeal the conviction. On Wednesday night, following a four-week murder trial at the High Court in Wellington, the jury found DeLuney guilty of murdering her mother , 79-year-old Helen Gregory. Gregory was killed at her Baroda Street home in Khandallah in January last year. DeLuney had denied killing her mother, and through the trial her lawyer Quentin Duff argued that the police investigation had been "one-eyed" and they had failed to consider anyone else for the murder. But the jury was more convinced by the Crown's argument that DeLuney was at the house that night and had been the one to kill her mother. After the verdict was handed down DeLuney cried silently in the dock, but otherwise remained stony faced. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Duff later told RNZ DeLuney was "devastated" by the jury's decision. When asked, he could not say whether she'd look to appeal or not. DeLuney has been remanded in custody and is expected to be sentenced on 5 September. Detective senior sergeant Tim Leitch, who led the police investigation, told media outside the court that he hoped the guilty verdict provided Gregory's friends and family with some answers and certainty as they moved forward with their lives. "Many of them have been in court every day over the past month, and have sat through the most difficult and confronting evidence" which, he said, "must have been almost unbearable at times". "The dignity, compassion and support the family have demonstrated every day of the trail has been incredible, and also quite remarkable," he said. Helen Gregory Photo: Supplied Gregory's friend Liz Askin was one of those who sat through the trial. She described her friend as an intelligent, kind, and generous woman who was full of vitality. "She loved her family deeply, following their achievements and going to their sporting events and family gatherings," and it was "with great sadness that her life was cut short". Cheryl Thomson was another of Gregory's friends who had been at the court every day after giving evidence herself. "This is the place we come to for justice in New Zealand and I am pleased we have now got it," she said. "Helen is sadly missed by all of us, holds a special place in our hearts and will never be forgotten."
RNZ News
23-07-2025
- RNZ News
Julia DeLuney found guilty of murdering her mother, Helen Gregory, in Khandallah
Julia Deluney in the High Court at Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Julia DeLuney has been found guilty of the murder of her 79-year-old mother, Helen Gregory. Gregory was found dead on 24 January, 2024 at her home in the Wellington suburb of Khandallah. DeLuney denied the charge, and has been on trial at the High Court in Wellington since 23 June. The Crown argued she attacked her mother with a heavy object, possibly motivated by financial incentives or following a confrontation over stolen cash, and staged the scene to look like a fall from the attic. The defence argued it was a case of mistaken identity . Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop laid out their version of events for the jury during her closing argument , saying what began as a night to book ballet tickets ended in some kind of confrontation or argument, which saw DeLuney violently attacking her mother. Julia DeLuney and Helen Gregory on January 9, 2024, in a photo retrieved from DeLuney's phone by police. Photo: SUPPLIED She said the jury might never know exactly what happened, but they did know DeLuney was at the scene that night, and that according to a forensic scientist, the scene had been staged - which she said would only benefit DeLuney, not a burglar. She said the multiple changes of clothes and disposing of unknown items in a passing rubbish truck the following morning pointed towards her guilt. But Defence lawyer Quentin Duff argued throughout that the police investigation had been "one-eyed" and they had failed to consider anyone else for the murder . Julia DeLuney at Wellington High Court. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii He pointed to evidence such as a hair found on the hand of the body, which still had a root attached and was able to be DNA tested, which ruled out DeLuney and Gregory as DNA matches. He told the jury in the 90-minute window where DeLuney had left her mother following a fall from the attic, someone else arrived and violently attacked her. He said nobody could have caused those injuries without having hatred for Gregory - and there was no sign of that from DeLuney. More to come... Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
