Following this, it was permitted that the girls would be allowed to sit in the docks while the evidence was read. According to Parker's accounts, she and Hulme both romanticized the idea of being sick.

Perry said of her part in the killing that she "made a profoundly wrong decision. [1] They both attended Christchurch Girls' High School, then located in what became the Cranmer Centre.

On the other hand, the two accused girls now occupying the centre of the stage are in a very difficult and distressing position, and the result of this trial may have dire consequences for them. “Most of you will have been at some time or other on the Port Hills, and some of you may possibly have been in Victoria Park. The family were excited at the birth of a little baby boy but at the age of five, Juliet recalled how her mother had serious complications following his birth – and was ultimately hospitalised. The girls then tried to move Honorah but decided not to do this and instead ran to the kiosk. Her sis… Although the family had only been briefly reunited, Hilda and Henry soon became worried for Juliet’s health and decided to send her to a private school in Hastings. Pauline concluded that the blood on their clothes was because they had tried to pick Honorah up – yet they realised this might do more damage and left her. Immediately, both Juliet and Pauline hit it off. She is also involved with the Mormon community after converting to the church 35 years ago. Walter admitted in the court that he had known early on about the girl’s plans to go to America.


Juliet Marion Hulme was born on the 28th October 1938 in Blackheath, a south-east district in London, England. Lesbian perspective on the Parker-Hulme case, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parker–Hulme_murder_case&oldid=983193081, People educated at Christchurch Girls' High School, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 12 October 2020, at 20:03. She also had minor injuries to her fingers. Pauline Yvonne Parker (aka Pauline Rieper) was born on 26 May 1938. Some sources say they were released on condition that they never contact each other again,[5] but Sam Barnett, then Secretary for Justice, told journalists there was no such condition.

[12] Carter's screenplay influenced the 1994 Peter Jackson film Heavenly Creatures and was later produced as a play for radio, airing on BBC Radio 4 in September 2018. However, throughout the trial, several doctors were called to the stand.

He was both hope giving and depressing. This later developed to severe pneumonia.

The case was also fictionalised in 1958 as The Evil Friendship by M. E. Kerr under the pseudonym Vin Packer. During their relationship, the girls invented their own personal religion, with their own ideas on morality. She also attracted many boyfriends, but not daring to know anyone well enough to explain about her past. Reflections of the Past official website.

It was believed that the warm weather would help Juliet recover. He remembered it being innocent and adventurous and typical of what a teenager would write. ( Log Out /  Walter had then asked what the stone was like, to which Pauline replied – “it was more like half a brick”. The subsequent trial became one of the sensations of the time.

Instead, each girl was sentenced to prison for five years. The girls were arrested the next day on the charge of murder. This was rejected.
Pauline also reported that her mother had made some noise but Pauline was unsure of what she had said. At the time, homosexuality was considered a mental illness. The girls wanted Mrs Parker killed so that Pauline would be sent to live with Juliet/Anne Perry.

Perry became the only child inmate in Mt Eden women's prison in Auckland.

[11], Inspired by the case, Angela Carter wrote an unproduced screenplay called The Christchurch Murder in which Pauline Parker was renamed Lena Ball and Juliet Hulme, Nerissa Locke. Each argued for and against insanity. "I was guilty and it was the right place for me to be." The girls then formed a plan to murder Pauline's mother in order to remove the one perceived obstacle of remaining together. All in all, the stories were typically fantasy based and were not malicious or violent in any way.

Pauline then said, “no, you ask me questions”.

By Parker's account, they had achieved this spiritual enlightenment because of their friendship. A film version of the story of the two 15 year olds, Heavenly Creatures, portrays the lesbian relationship between the two. Investigations found that Honorah had deep lacerations to her head, neck and face.

While she has never spoken to the press, in a 1996 statement released through her sister she expressed strong remorsefor having killed her mother. Pauline was sure her mother would not allow her to go with Juliet. She remained here for thirteen months.

An advertisement was placed in numerous newspapers in the British Commonwealth on the 30th May 1947.

Walter had made them all a cup of tea. The shock is too great to have penetrated my mind yet. [13], Mary Orr and Reginald Denham's 1967 play Minor Murder, Michaelanne Forster's 1992 New Zealand play Daughters of Heaven and Canadian Trevor Schmidt's 2010 play Folie à Deux were based on the Parker–Hulme murder. He stated to the court that he was very friendly with the Hulme’s and had spent Christmas with the family in 1953.

( Log Out /  Deborah (the name Juliet used in her writing) and I are sticking together through everything. The schoolgirls lured Mrs Parker to Victoria Park in Christchurch, on June 22, 1954, where they hit her repeatedly on the head with half a brick in a sock. It was reported that the children believed their parents to be married, however this was found to be incorrect. Juliet then asked her mother if she could go to bed – she read her favourite poem until she fell asleep.

“. Again, the warm climate was the main factor for sending her. Pauline’s primary school was local and so Pauline returned to her education.

The names are changed and the location of the crime is changed to Halifax.

Thus, during the trial, both Honorah and Pauline were referred to with the surname "Parker".[4]. Prior to the trial, Pauline Parker had been known as Pauline Rieper.

Pets; Food & Drinks; Money; Career; Weddings; Relationships; The next he remembered, Henry Hulme was informing him that the girls had witnessed Honorah fall on some rocks and that they were being given a bath. The young children would also attend day trips put on by the church. The Fourth World was a place that they felt they were already able to enter occasionally, during moments of spiritual enlightenment.

They'd catch you when you were still asleep." Doctors believed that six-year-old Juliet would succumb to the illness, yet she survived.