In the film, which will be shown on Sky Movies tomorrow, Parker, was played by Melanie Lynskey and the part of Hulme was taken by Kate Winslet. It shows the girls luring Parker's mother Honora to a park overlooking Christchurch, where they took turns clubbing her to death.

There were allegations, never proved, that the two girls were lesbian lovers. The murder trial in August 1954 was reported world-wide, getting front page coverage in the Daily Express. The case shook the conservative, English-style society in NZ. The prosecutor called it "a coldly, callously planned murder committed by two highly intelligent and sound but precocious and dirty-minded little girls".

Such was the publicity surrounding the story that on the second day of the trial in Christchurch, women were trampled in the stampede to get seats in the courthouse. At the time the girls never denied the crime and did little to hide their guilt. Defence lawyers argued they were insane and not responisible for their actions.

The film HC tries to explain the crime as the result of an abnormally intense friendship. On its release in Britain Hulme denied the portrayal of the two girls as being psychologically deviant or lesbian. Police were baffled about the motive for the murder. One theory is that the teenagers were angry that Parker's mother was refusing to allow her to join Hulme, who was moving to South Africa with her family.

The film makers drew heavily on diaries which Parker kept before the murder, in which she described herself as an outcast at school and misunderstood at home. Hulme also turned to religion after her release from prison, becoming a member of the Mormon church before turning her hand to crime writing. She has had much success with her Victorian mystery books, which feature Police Superintendent Pitt and Inspector Monk, in the United States where three million copies are in print. A sense of persecution emerges in most of her work in which she frequently attempts to distinguish between right and wrong. Hulme said in 1995 she was disappointed the story had surfaced again. For both Parker and Hulme it is a story which will without doubt return to haunt them for many more years.

The pair have never been in contact since their release from prison. Hulme was not aware that Parker was also living in the UK and when The Express broke the news to her last night she was taken aback. "I had no idea where Pauline was living," said Hulme. "I have not seen or heard from her in all these years."

Speaking from her luxurious home, a converted farm building at Portmahomack, Easter Ross, in the Scottish Highlands, she said she had no plans to contact her.

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