Pauline Parker, who murdered her mother alongside her teenage friend Juliet Hulme in one of Christchurch’s most notorious crimes, has died in Scotland aged 88.

Parker had been living under the name Hilary Nathan in the Orkney Islands, more than 70 years after the murder that shocked New Zealand and later inspired Sir Peter Jackson’s acclaimed film Heavenly Creatures.

Scottish newspaper The Orcadian reported that Parker’s death had been registered in Kirkwall this month.

She was understood to have been living in retirement accommodation at Braeburn Court in St Margaret’s Hope at the time of her death.

Parker was just 16 when she and 15 year old Hulme murdered Parker’s mother, Honorah, in Victoria Park on Christchurch’s Port Hills on 22 June 1954.

The teenagers attacked Honorah with half a brick concealed inside a stocking, inflicting dozens of injuries.

The murder followed growing concerns from both families about the girls’ intense friendship.

According to historical records published by New Zealand’s Ministry for Culture and Heritage, the teenagers feared being separated after Hulme’s parents decided she would leave New Zealand with her father.

Parker wanted to accompany her friend, but their parents refused.

Her diary subsequently revealed that the girls had begun planning the murder earlier that month.

On the day of the killing, Parker and Hulme accompanied Honorah to Victoria Park, where they had tea at the kiosk before setting off along a walking track.

After the attack, the girls returned to the kiosk covered in blood, claiming Honorah had fallen and injured herself.

Police later discovered Parker’s diary, and both teenagers were arrested.

The case attracted enormous public attention, with the girls’ relationship and their elaborate shared fantasies becoming central to the trial.

On 28 August 1954, a Christchurch jury found both guilty of murder, rejecting a defence argument that they were insane.

Because both were under 18, they could not be sentenced to death, which remained a punishment for murder in New Zealand at the time.

Instead, they were sentenced to indefinite detention during Her Majesty’s pleasure.

Both served approximately five years in prison before being released in 1959 under new identities, with orders never to contact one another again.

Parker later studied at the University of Auckland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1964, before working as a librarian and moving to England.

She eventually settled in Scotland, where she ran a horse stable on the Orkney island of Burray.

Hulme, meanwhile, adopted the name Anne Perry and became an internationally successful crime novelist, selling millions of books.

She died in 2023 aged 84.

The murder returned to international attention in 1994 following the release of Heavenly Creatures, directed by Sir Peter Jackson and starring Melanie Lynskey as Parker, Kate Winslet as Hulme and Sarah Peirse as Honorah.

The film received an Academy Award nomination for its screenplay and introduced the Christchurch murder case to a new generation.