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WARNING: This story contains forensic details and an image of the scene that could be upsetting.

Julia DeLuney will serve at least 18 years in prison aftering murdering her mother last year, but continues to deny she is responsible for her death.

Today, Julia DeLuney, a school teacher turned cryptocurrency trader, was sentenced in the High Court at Wellington.

The 53-year-old was earlier found guilty of murdering Gregory, 79, who was found dead in her Khandallah home in January last year after DeLuney struck her around the head multiple times with a heavy object.

Helen Gregory who was found dead in her Khandallah home in January last year. Photo/Supplied.

At the sentencing, the courtroom’s public gallery was packed with family, friends, police officers, and members of the public who’d observed the trial.

The Crown sought a minimum period of imprisonment (MPI) of 18 years, while the defence suggested it should be 17 years.

Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop submitted that the murder was committed with a high level of brutality and was particularly callous.

She said Gregory was particularly vulnerable and was killed in her own home, a place where she should have felt safe.

In the days before the murder, DeLuney had also convinced her mother to give the last of her savings, Bishop said.

DeLuney’s lawyer Quentin Duff submitted his client continued to maintain her innocence.

Her position was that at no stage had she employed any violence against any person, “including her beloved mother”, he said.

Julia DeLuney with her mother Helen Gregory. Photo/Supplied.

But Duff said her lack of remorse was not enough to displace an MPI of 17 years.

However, Justice Peter Churchman adopted the Crown’s position, sentencing Deluney to life imprisonment with an MPI of 18 years.

He told the court that there was nothing to suggest such an MPI was manifestly unjust.

Justice Churchman said the murder involved a high level of brutality and cruelty, adding that it was a violent, frenzied and prolonged attack.

Motivated by money

At Deluney’s trial in July, the Crown said the murder was motivated by money.

Evidence showed Deluney was living beyond her means and had already taken money from her mother, who had large quantities of cash stored throughout her house, including her freezer.

DeLuney visited Gregory’s home on the evening of January 24 last year to book tickets to the ballet in celebration of her upcoming 80th birthday.

At some stage during the three-and-a-half hours Deluney was there, she violently attacked her mother with a heavy object, thought to be a vase, leaving her dead or dying. The vase has never been found.

The view looking up to the attic at Helen Gregory's Khandallah home. Photo / Supplied.

She left the house at 9.45pm, after staging the scene to make it look like her mother had fallen from the attic, only to return 90 minutes later with her husband Antonio, who called emergency services.

The defence case was that Deluney was not responsible for her mother’s death, and someone else had come into the home.

Like a ‘warzone’

There was blood found on the walls outside the utility cupboard in Helen Gregory's house. Photo / Supplied

The Crown’s circumstantial case included a neighbour’s CCTV footage showing DeLuney leaving her mother’s house and later returning with her husband, with no one else arriving at the address while she was away.

CCTV footage from petrol stations showed DeLuney buying a lighter and several changes of clothes that evening.

Forensic evidence from inside the three-bedroomed home revealed Gregory’s blood smeared in the hallway and splattered on the bedroom walls.

DeLuney claimed she’d helped her mother after she had fallen from the attic and that she only had minor injuries.

She said she left her on the floor in the spare bedroom and went to get help.

DeLuney said she hadn’t called emergency services because she was scared she’d be blamed for allowing her mother to climb into the attic and claimed her mother disliked hospitals.

It was like walking into a “warzone” when she returned to her mother’s house, she told police, claiming someone must have entered while she was away and attacked her.

A forensic senior scientist told the trial the blood staining wasn’t consistent with that scenario, and she thought the crime scene had been staged.

She estimated Gregory had been struck in the head 10 times.

The bedroom where Helen Gregory's body was found at her Khandallah home in January 2024. Photo / Supplied.

Blood on the walls and items inside the utility cupboard, from where access was gained to the attic, had been transferred and blood had been “poured” down the back wall.

Swipe marks on the walls contained clotted blood, which takes five to 10 minutes to form. There was also extensive blood staining on the bedroom walls and furniture.

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The trial heard DeLuney worked as a school teacher until about 15 years ago, and more recently, she’d turned her hand to trading cryptocurrency.

Details of DeLuney’s financial activities presented in court showed she’d spent $150,000 on cryptocurrency in the years before her death. Her credit card balances showed she was living beyond her means.

Gregory kept large quantities of cash stashed in her freezer, kitchen cupboards, and wardrobe, because she distrusted banks.

In the year before her death, cash had gone missing from her house.

On one occasion, DeLuney initially denied taking $85,000, but later admitted to taking it and investing it in cryptocurrency.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.