Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004

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On 30 September 2004, seven men living on Pitcairn Island (including Steve Christian, the Mayor), went on trial facing 55 charges relating to sexual offences. On 24 October, all but one of the defendants were found guilty on at least some of the charges they faced. Another six now living abroad were tried on 41 further charges in a separate trial in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2005. Prosecutor Simon Moore says that additional charges are due to be laid.

Contents 1 The trial 2 Historical background 3 Local reaction 4 Timeline of the trial 4.1 30 September 2004 4.2 4 October 2004 4.3 5 October 2004 4.4 6 October 2004 4.5 7 October 2004 4.6 8 October 2004 4.7 12 October 2004 4.8 21 October 2004 5 Verdict and Aftermath 5.1 24 October 2004 (Verdicts) 5.2 October 27, 2004 5.3 29 October 2004 (Sentences) 5.4 30 October 2004 (Fallout) 5.5 2007 6 Appeals 7 Identity of the accused 8 References 9 External links

[edit] The trial

The trial has been punctuated by legal challenges from island residents, who deny the island's colonial status, and with it, Britain's judicial authority over the islands. Defence lawyers for the seven accused men claim that British sovereignty over the islands is unconstitutional: the HMS Bounty mutineers, from whom almost all of the current island population is descended, effectively renounced their British citizenship by committing a capital offence in the burning of the Bounty in 1790, they say. In a symbolic rejection of British rule, islanders still celebrate this act annually by burning an effigy of the Bounty, according to Paul Dacre, the Pitcairn Public defender. The defence maintains that Britain never made a formal claim to Pitcairn, and never officially informed the islanders that British legislation, such as the Sexual Offences Act of 1956, was applicable to them.

In a judgement delivered on 18 April 2004, the Pitcairn Islands Supreme Court (specially established for the purpose of the trial, consisting of New Zealand judges authorized by the British government) rejected the claim that Pitcairn was not British territory. This decision was upheld in August 2004 by the Pitcairn Court of Appeal, endorsing the claim of Deputy Governor Matthew Forbes that Pitcairn was indeed British territory. A delay of the trial until Britain's Privy Council decided on a further appeal was rejected. The trial started on 30 September 2004.

On October 12, 2004, the Privy Council agreed to hear the case against British sovereignty on Pitcairn, but refused to suspend the trials pending the outcome of the hearing, whose date has yet to be determined. It was announced on 18 October that upon being sentenced, the defendants would be freed on bail until the Privy Council ruled on the constitutionality of the trial. If the Privy Council had ruled in favour of the islanders (which constitutional experts considered unlikely), the trial and its conclusions would have been deemed null and void. The hearings before the Privy Council were expected to last two weeks and to be the longest in more than 100 years^[1].

Verdicts were delivered on 24 October 2004, with all but one of the defendants convicted on at least some of the charges they were facing. Those found guilty were sentenced on 29 October 2004.

[edit] Historical background

The remoteness of Pitcairn (which lies about halfway between New Zealand and Peru) had shielded the tiny population (47 in 2004) from outside scrutiny. If present admissions and allegations are to be believed, the devout Seventh-day Adventism practiced by the islanders has for many decades masked a tolerance for sexual promiscuity, even among the very young, with a corresponding tacit acceptance of child sexual abuse. Three cases of imprisonment for sex with underage girls are reported in the 1950s^[2].

The first that the outside world heard of this was after Gail Cox, a policewoman from Kent, who was serving a temporary assignment on Pitcairn, began uncovering allegations of sexual abuse. When a 15-year-old girl decided to press rape charges in 1999, criminal proceedings (code-named "Operation Unique") were set in motion. The charges include 21 counts of rape, 41 of indecent assault and two of gross indecency with a child under 14. Over the following two years, police officers in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Norfolk Island interviewed every woman who had lived on Pitcairn in the past 20 years, as well as all of the accused. Simon Moore, an Auckland lawyer appointed Pitcairn Public Prosecutor by the British government for the purposes of the investigation, holds the file.

Australian Seventh-day Adventist pastor Neville Tosen, who spent two years on Pitcairn around the turn of the millennium, said that on his arrival he had been taken aback by the conduct of the children, but had not immediately realized what was happening. "I noticed worrying signs such as inexplicable mood swings," he said. "It took me three months to realise they were being abused." Tosen had tried to bring the matter before the Island Council (the legislative body which doubles as the island's court), but had been rebuffed, with one Councillor telling him, "Look, the age of consent has always been twelve and it doesn't hurt them."

A study of island records confirmed anecdotal evidence that most girls had their first child between the ages of 12 and 15. "I think the girls were conditioned to accept that it was a man's world and once they turned 12, they were eligible," Tosen said. Mothers and grandmothers were resigned to the situation, telling him that their own childhood experience had been the same; they regarded it as just a part of life on Pitcairn. One grandmother wondered what all the fuss was about. Tosen was convinced, however, that the experience was very damaging to the girls. "They can't settle or form solid relationships. They did suffer, no doubt about it," he said emphatically.

Tosen opined that accounts of the Pitcairners' past transformation by Christianity, once popularized in missionary tracts, told only one side of the story. He pointed out that 13 of the original settlers were murdered, many in fights over women, before John Adams, the sole surviving mutineer, pacified them with the help of the Bible. "This is the island that the gospel changed, but the changes were only superficial," he said. "Deep down, they adhered to the mutineers' mentality. They must have known that their lifestyle was unacceptable, but it was too entrenched."

In 1999, a New Zealander visiting the island, Ricky Quinn, was sentenced by island magistrate Jay Warren to 100 days in prison for underage sex with a 15-year-old Pitcairn girl^[3].

A bill was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 2002 to allow a trial in New Zealand, based on Pitcairn law, to be held in 2004. However, in 2004 the accused won a legal battle to be tried in Pitcairn. Three judges, several prosecution and defence lawyers, other court staff and six journalists travelled from New Zealand to the island in late September for the seven-week trial, doubling the number of people on the island during their stay. Witnesses living abroad began giving evidence remotely by a video satellite link-up.

As of April 2006, the cost of the trial amounted to $NZ14.1 million^[4].

[edit] Local reaction

Pitcairn's 47 inhabitants, almost all of whom are interrelated, have been bitterly divided by the charging of most of the adult male population. Many Pitcairn Island men have blamed the British police for convincing the women involved to press charges. Some of the women agree. Under what sources close to the case say was pressure from their families, several women withdrew the charges they had laid. On 28 September 2004, Olive Christian, wife of the accused Mayor, daughter of Len Brown and mother of Randy Christian, both of whom are also among those accused, called a meeting of thirteen of the island's women, representing three generations at her home, Big Fence, to "defend" the island's menfolk. Claiming that underage sex had been accepted as a Polynesian tradition since the settlement of the island in 1790, Olive Christian said of her girlhood, "We all thought sex was like food on the table." Christian’s two daughters also said that they had both been sexually active from the age of 12, with one of them claiming that she had been "hot for it". They and other women present at the meeting, who endorsed their view that underage sex was normal on Pitcairn, stated emphatically that all of the alleged rape victims had been willing participants. Charlene Warren, who withdrew charges against a Pitcairn man, claimed that detectives had offered her money to testify; when pressed, she admitted, however, that the money referred to statutory compensation for victims of crime. Another woman, Meralda Warren, came up with a conspiracy theory that the trial was part of a British plot to jail the community's able-bodied men and "close down" the island. "They've picked on all the viable young men, the ones who are the backbone of this place," she said.

Not all women on the island agreed. Some present at the Big Fence meeting sat silent and looked sullen, giving reporters the impression that they had been coerced by their families to speak up for their menfolk, and one of the women, who refused to identify herself, subsequently emailed a newspaper to dismiss Olive Christian's claims as "nonsense." Speaking outside the schoolhouse which doubles as a courtroom the next day, two island women angrily rejected the other women's claims that sex typically begins early on Pitcairn.

The islanders were ordered to surrender their twenty or so guns, both in view of emotions that were running high and to avoid hunting accidents with the additional foreigners around.

Many of the islanders have boycotted the trial. "It's better for me not to know who's charged with what, so that I can still look them in the face as mates," one islander said. "We still have to work together to keep this place going." While many islanders remain fearful that the outcome of the trial could sound the death-knell of the tiny state, others have expressed optimism that it could mark a new beginning for Pitcairn as people previously excluded from the power structure would now find themselves needed and appreciated for their skills and contributions in a new way.

Many Pitcairners have been left feeling very sorry for themselves, with many, including Mike Warren saying that the whole trial was a "setup" from the start. Former Pitcairn resident Reeve Cooze expressed the sentiments of many of the islanders on Radio New Zealand when he declared, "The Pitcairn people have been bullied."

[edit] Timeline of the trial

[edit] 30 September 2004

The trial opened on Pitcairn.

[edit] 4 October 2004

In a written statement read out by police at the trial, a former islander (name withheld) alleged that Mayor Steve Christian had raped her twice in 1972 when she was 12, once in bushland and once in a boat moored at Bounty Bay, and had used adolescent girls as his personal harem. "Steve seemed to take it upon himself to initiate all the girls, and it was like we were his harem," she stated. She had not informed her parents or others in the community, she said, because she "knew nothing would be done about it because of previous experience on the island."

On the same day, another woman alleged that she had been raped twice as a school girl by Steve Christian. She had been a virgin at the time of the first rape.

[edit] 5 October 2004

Postmaster Dennis Christian became the first defendant to plead guilty at the trial. He admitted culpability to two charges of sexual assault against a 12 to 14-year-old girl from 1972 to 1974, when he was 16 to 18, and one charge of indecent assault against another 12-year-old girl in the early 1980s, when he was in his late 20s. Detective Inspector Rob Vinson of Kent Police, who had conducted the investigation, described the confession as a "significant development," and Pitcairn public prosecutor Simon Moore expressed relief that Christian's two victims had been spared the trauma of having to give testimony.

Crown prosecutors said that they would not offer evidence for a fourth charge, because the victim wished to withdraw it and because it would not affect the sentence. Christian, meanwhile, has been remanded on bail pending the completion of all seven trials. Verdicts and sentences will be delivered together at the end.

[edit] 6 October 2004

The prosecution produced a videotape of a police interview with Christian, conducted at Auckland Central police station in New Zealand in 2000. Christian denied "breaking in" four girls in their early teens or younger. (He was later accused by a fifth woman of having raped her in a similar fashion). Christian agreed that it "could be the case" that he had sex with one girl of 13 and another of 15. He said he could not recall the specific incidents but admitted to two other sexual relationships with girls under 16, both of whom, he insisted, had consented. He emphatically denied ever having forced sex on anybody.

Christian has pleaded not guilty to all charges of rape and indecent assault.

[edit] 7 October 2004

The trial continued with the appearance of Jay Warren, 48, the former Magistrate of Pitcairn, and Terry Young, 45.

Warren, held the office of Magistrate, which has since been renamed Mayor, for most of the 1990s. The 48-year-old Warren stands accused of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl in 1983. The woman (name suppressed), who is now 33, testified by video link from New Zealand, where she now lives, that Warren had accosted her while she was body-surfing with friends in Bounty Bay after school. The woman says she was wearing flippers, and managed to swim away. In reply to a question from Paul Dacre, the public defender, she told the court that she felt unable to tell anybody on the island about what had happened at that time. "On Pitcairn I don't recall talking about anything personal to anyone in the whole time I lived there," she added.

Warren denies the charge.

Ironically (hypocritically, his detractors say), then-Magistrate Warren had sentenced Ricky Quinn, a New Zealand tourist, to 100 days imprisonment in 1999 for "unlawful carnal knowledge" of a 15-year-old girl.

The same woman told the court that she had also been abused by Terry Young, who stands accused of one rape and seven indecent assaults over a period of almost 20 years. The woman, one of four of Young's alleged victims, told the court that in 1981, when she was 10, Young had groped her as she emerged from the toilet block at the island's school, where she had been attending a community event that evening.

The court was told that Young had confessed this incident to the police. He had also confessed to having molested another 10-year-old girl during a tag game at a communal dinner (an incident he told the police had happened "accidentally"), and another girl of 13 or 14 while she was a passenger on his quad-bike. His principal victim was a girl he allegedly molested regularly over a number of years, from the time she was 7.

His confessions to the police notwithstanding, Young has formally denied all charges against him in court.

[edit] 8 October 2004

Dave Brown, brother-in-law to Mayor Steve Christian, became the second defendant to change his plea from innocent to guilty. Brown, a 49-year-old tractor driver, pleaded guilty to two charges of indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the mid-1980s, and to a further charge of molesting a 15-year-old girl during spear-fishing trip in 1986.

The court listened to an interview recorded on Pitcairn in 2004, in which Brown told police that he had been "in love" with a 13-year-old girl, with whom he carried on a long relationship in the mid-1980s, when he was in his early 30s, and married with children. Their first sexual encounter had taken place in undergrowth behind the general store after he met her in the village square. About a month later they had sex again when they met after swimming. After the second sexual encounter, Brown told police, the girl had said that she enjoyed the sexual relationship and wanted more of it. Seeing each other more than once a month was difficult, however, otherwise it would be difficult to keep the affair secret. Despite being confronted by his wife, Lea, and despite being asked by the island's police officer on behalf of the girl's mother to leave her alone, Brown renewed his relationship with the girl after a six-month interval. "She didn't want to let go and neither did I," Brown said. The relationship continued until the girl left the island at the age of 16.

At the beginning of the police investigation in 2000, the girl had been one of many complainants, but withdrew her allegations against Brown before the trial.

In the video, Brown told the police that it was "a normal part of Pitcairn life" for adult men to have sex with girls of 12 or 13. "It didn't seem wrong," he said. Most islanders, including his parents, had started having sex at a young age, and each generation had followed on from the one before it. He said, however, that he had rethought the widespread acceptance of underage sex, and had concluded that it was not appropriate. Of his own affair with the 13-year-old girl, he said, "I regret it now. Times are changing. Things are moving forward, and obviously what we did then was not normal."

Brown pleaded not guilty, however, to a further twelve charges, which include forcing a five-year-old girl to give him oral sex, and of indecently assaulting a girl of six or seven in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the only church on the island.

[edit] 12 October 2004

As the trial resumed, a number of details came to light about the alleged misdeeds of Mayor Steve Christian. One of his alleged victims told the court that he went to her house the night his first son was born, and asked her for sex - she refused. Royal Warren, who assisted with the birth, provided Christian with an alibi: he had, she said, been present throughout his wife's labour. The 76-year-old Mrs Warren admitted that Christian had left the room at one point to go to the toilet, "but I know," she said, "that he never left the room to go and do anything harmful." More witnesses are to be called.

In the separate trial of Terry Young, a former resident of Pitcairn Island accused him of raping her repeatedly in her early teens. The first rape she could remember took place in 1978, when she was 12, but he had begun assaulting her indecently much earlier. The rapes and assaults continued until she was 15, when she left to go to New Zealand for her education.

In a video-link from New Zealand, the 38-year-old woman broke down in tears as she described an abusive childhood in which she was regularly beaten at home, treated as a slave by her parents, raped and assaulted by Young and other older men on the island, and left feeling unable to tell anybody. Most of the rapes took place in secluded areas where she went to collect firewood (her chore); she could not tell her mother that she did not want to go, for fear of being beaten. Even with the rapes, "She (mother) would still have made me go," the woman said. "What she said I had to do. I had no choice but to go."

The woman said that at first, she had tried to object to the rapes. After a while, however, she had come to realize that there was nothing she could do about it: Young would simply carry on what he was doing. She had come to the conclusion that the best of a bad job was to consent. "I just lay there and let him get it over and done with. The quicker he did it, the quicker I was able to go."

The woman said she had been too ashamed to tell anyone, even her schoolteacher, who was from New Zealand. "It was too shameful to tell anyone, let alone someone who was not from Pitcairn," she said. In the twenty years between her departure from Pitcairn and her being interviewed by police, she had told nobody about the abuse that had gone on, not even her husband.

Another islander told the court that she had caught another of the seven defendants, who was then in his 30s, having an affair with her 13-year-old daughter. She had told him to leave her alone. Once, she had caught him trying to climb in through her daughter's window. He fell off his ladder into the shrubs when she shouted abuse at him.

[edit] 21 October 2004

Defence lawyers representing the seven accused presented their final submissions. Much of the day was dominated by the defence of Randy Christian, the 30-year-old son of Mayor Steve Christian. The younger Christian stands accused of five rapes and seven indecent assaults against four women between 1988 and 1999. He is also alleged to have targeted a five or seven-year-old girl from 1989 or 1991 onwards, and to have abused her continuously over the following decade. He has admitted to having sex with an under-age girl of 11 or 12.

Defence lawyer Allan Roberts claimed that Christian's relationship with the child had been consensual. The girl, who is now 20, was the one who sparked off the police inquiry four years ago when she told her mother of the abuse she had suffered. Her mother in turn told Gail Cox, the visiting British police officer. This was the first the outside world knew of the prevalence of sexual abuse on Pitcairn. Roberts, however, produced love letters written by the girl before Christian had left Pitcairn for Norfolk Island, to support his claim that she had, in fact, been infatuated with Christian. According to Roberts, this infatuation continued after Christian left the island: in her statement to police, he said, she had confessed to "having a crush on Randy even though he is no longer on the island." He called her "a cold and cruel and vengeful liar who would stop at nothing to draw attention back to herself ... a woman scorned," whose complaint to the police was nothing other than revenge for his having abandoned her.

Public prosecutor Simon Moore rejected this defence, charging that Christian had exploited their ten-year age gap and his superior physical strength for his own advantage. While admitting that for a girl to have a crush on an older man was nothing out of the ordinary, and that there were few unattached young men available, Moore maintained that Christian had taken advantage of the girl's naivety, ignorance, and innocence. "He flattered her, he played her and he lured her into situations where he could do as he wished," Moore said, adding that it was after reading a leaflet about sexual harassment from Constable Cox that the girl had realized that Christian's treatment of her was unacceptable.

The court has been told that during the period in question, Christian had two girlfriends. One was a pest control officer who came to Pitcairn to rid the island of rats.

Verdicts were delivered on 24 October with six of the seven being convicted. Sentences are to be handed down on 28 October.

[edit] Verdict and Aftermath

[edit] 24 October 2004 (Verdicts)

On 24 October 2004, the Supreme Court convicted six of the seven accused, on 35 of the 55 charges. Only Jay Warren, the former Magistrate (1990-1999) was found not guilty on all counts. See Identity of the accused for details.

Chief Justice Charles Blackie ridiculed Mayor Steve Christian's claim that his relationship with one of his victims had been consensual. "She was young, naive and vulnerable," Blackie said. "She was secreted into the bushes and there the accused took advantage of her. There had been no affection, kissing or romantic connection. She did not want it to happen."

The controversy over the trial is far from resolved. On 26 October 2004, prosecutor Simon Moore told Radio New Zealand that the charges and the verdicts were only the tip of the iceberg, accounting for only one third of the cases police learned about when they began their investigations. He said that more charges were due to be laid involving people now living in Australia and New Zealand, but refused to provide any further details because of "extensive name suppression orders in place."

Moore said that some of the victims, none of whom still live on the island, had indicated an interest in returning to Pitcairn, but they would have to be satisfied that justice had been done and that the island was now a safe place for their families.

Auckland lawyer Chris Harder, who has represented one of the accused, has appealed for mercy in view of the devastation he says would be caused by the imprisonment of most of the island's able-bodied men. He has put forward a proposal for the men to make a public apology and pay compensation to their victims, instead of facing imprisonment, which, he says, could mean the end of the microstate.

Although Professor John Connell of the University of Sydney said that if the men were imprisoned, they would have to be released temporarily whenever needed to man the longboat, without which the island cannot connect with the outside world. "It would be a punishment for the whole community" if they were not, said the South Pacific scholar. Some Islanders have expressed fears that without those convicted, there would not be enough men to manhandle the longboat. Others, less connected with the case, have noted that the defendants took steps which prevented other islanders become more skilled at handling the boats. This was another example of the "power and control" problems which exist on the island.

Public Defender Paul Dacre called on the court to impose sentences in keeping with Pitcairners' unique circumstances. "We are talking about 50 people living on a rock, not 50 million in England," he said.

[edit] October 27, 2004

Pending sentencing, lawyers for the six convicted pleaded for clemency, arguing that it was essential for the survival of the dependency. Only two of the six expressed any regret, however. Dennis Christian had emailed his principal victim to apologize and express his "deep remorse," the court was told, and Dave Brown made a statement through his lawyer that he "regretted any distress caused." His father, Len Brown, refused to apologize for his own offences; his lawyer, Allan Roberts told the court that to do so would be "fraudulent."

[edit] 29 October 2004 (Sentences)

The Supreme Court handed down sentences tailored, said Chief Justice Charles Blackie, to the unique conditions of Pitcairn Island. Dennis Christian and Dave Brown were sentenced to community service, apparently in recognition of the remorse they had shown at the trial. Mayor Steve Christian, Randy Christian, and Len Brown were all sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to six years. (See Identity of the accused for details). Elaborating on Chief Justice Blackie's statement, Bryan Nicholson of the British High Commission in New Zealand said, "The penalties were tailored to Pitcairn and take into account the unique isolation, population of less than 50, and the dependence of manpower." None of the sentences will be carried out until some time in 2006, when the Privy Council is due to rule on the legal validity of British sovereignty and judicial authority on Pitcairn.

[edit] 30 October 2004 (Fallout)

Bryan Nicolson, a spokesman for the British High Commission in New Zealand, announced on 30 October that Governor Richard Fell had formally dismissed Steve Christian from the Mayoralty, and his son Randy from the Chairmanship of the powerful Internal Committee. The dismissal followed Christian's refusal to resign when asked to do so by Deputy-Governor Matthew Forbes, in the wake of their convictions. Forbes had warned them that if they ignored his invitation to resign voluntarily, they would be dismissed, a warning that provoked a defiant reaction from Christian. Asserting in an e-mail to a supporter that he had "not been convicted of anything illegal," he challenged Forbes to "fuck off" and carry out his threat to sack him.

Christian's conviction and dismissal left the islanders with a power vacuum. On 8 November 2004, the Island Council named Christian's sister, Brenda, interim Mayor pending elections scheduled for 15 December 2004, which were won by Jay Warren.

[edit] 2007

Brian Michael John Young is found guilty of rape and indecent assault, and sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison.

[edit] Appeals

The six convicts began their appeal in the Supreme Court, in Papakura, New Zealand, on 18 April 2005. Defence lawyers argued that as Pitcairn's colonial rulers had never enforced British law, the six men convicted of sex crimes could not have known that their acts were illegal - a defence rejected as "extraordinary" by public prosecutor Simon Moore. If true, he said, Pitcairn had been "a zone of criminal immunity" - an enclave where serious crimes could be committed with impunity.

The proceedings were relayed live to the Adamstown courthouse, on Pitcairn, by a video linkup. About twenty locals, including the accused, watched the hearing.

Crown prosecutors produced numerous old documents to refute the defence that British law had never been enforced on Pitcairn, or that the Pitcairners had never known that they were subject to it. According to the documents, the islanders had, over a period of many years, sought British advice and intervention in cases related to adultery, abortion, kleptomania, attempted murder (including a 1936 case in which a husband and wife both tried to kill each other), and even the theft of women's underwear. Crown Prosecutor Simon Mount said the charges had been referred to British authorities because they were too serious to be dealt with locally, and proved that Pitcairners were fully aware of British law and of its applicability to them.

Betty Christian, the Island Secretary, broke ranks with many of her fellow Pitcairners, testifying at the Pitcairn Supreme Court hearing in Papakura that the islanders were indeed aware that they were British subjects and that British law was applicable to them. She also flatly contradicted the defence that sexual activity at a young age was considered "normal" on Pitcairn, saying that Pitcairn's values were no different from those of any other modern society.

On 24 May 2005, the Auckland court rejected the appeal of the six convicted men. It carried over their bail until their further appeal could be heard by the Privy Council, in 2006. ^[5]

Former Pitcairn resident Shawn Brent Christian, 29, now living in Australia, announced a legal challenge to the validity of New Zealand lawyers and judges carrying out a trial in a British colony on 27 November 2005. "They are saying it should have been English judges and English lawyers doing the trial," said New Zealand lawyer Fletcher Pilditch. Christian appeared to have the support of others awaiting trial. Christian, whose alleged offences (three rapes) are said to have happened between 1994 and 1996, is the younger son of former Mayor Steve Christian.

A further appeal brought by the Public Defender was heard by the Court of Appeal on 31 January 2006. The basis of the appeal was the validity of the laws applied to the accused, with the defence arguing that British law had not been ratified on Pitcairn. "We are arguing whether the English legal system applies to these people. That is it in a nutshell," defence lawyer Allan Roberts said.

The Pitcairn Court of Appeal dismissed this appeal that British law did not apply on Pitcairn. Randall Christian's appeal against indecent assault of a girl aged under 13 was upheld, but this doesn't affect his sentence of six years on other charges. The men appealed to the Privy Council in London. ^{[6] [7]}

The Privy Council terminated the appeal abruptly in July 2006, saying that the argument that Pitcairn has always been self-governing was unrealistic. The final appeals for all six men failed on October 30, 2006^[8].

[edit] Identity of the accused

The defendants who live locally are:

• Steve Christian, Mayor since 1999. He was charged with a total of six rapes and four indecent assaults committed between 1964 and 1975. He pleaded not guilty to all charges of rape and sexual abuse, but admitted to two sexual encounters, which he said were consensual, with underage females. Christian was convicted of five rapes and cleared of four indecent assaults and one rape. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. Still protesting his innocence and refusing to resign, he was dismissed from office on 30 October 2004 by the Governor, Richard Fell.
• Randy Christian, 30, son of Steve Christian, was Chairman of the powerful Internal Committee, which effectively made him his father's deputy. He faced five charges of rape and seven of indecent assault against four women between 1988 and 1999. He was also accused of targeting one girl from the age of five or seven, abusing her repeatedly over the next decade. He admitted to having under-age sex with a girl of 11 or 12. He was convicted of four rapes (against the same girl from the age of 10) and five indecent assault charges, but cleared of one rape and two indecent assaults. His six-year prison sentence is the severest ever handed down on Pitcairn. Governor Fell dismissed him from the chairmanship of the Internal Committee on 30 October 2004 following his refusal to resign.
• Len Brown, 78, Steve Christian's father-in-law, was convicted of two rapes. Both were committed in a watermelon patch. Through his lawyer, Allan Roberts, Brown refused to apologize. To do so would be "fraudulent," Roberts said. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, but on account of his age, he is allowed to apply for home detention instead.
• Dave Brown, 49, son of Len Brown. Pleaded guilty on 8 October 2004 to two charges of indecent assault against a 14-year-old girl and one charge of molesting a 15-year-old girl. He continued to deny 12 other charges, including one of forcing a 5-year-old girl to give him oral sex. Brown was found guilty of nine indecent assaults against three girls, but was cleared of four charges of indecent assault and two of gross indecency. Earlier, he had told New Zealand journalist Kathy Marks that he hated reporters and was sick of their "lies." After the verdict, however, his lawyer, Charles Cato, told the court that Brown "regretted any distress caused." He was sentenced to 400 hours' community service and was ordered to undergo counselling.
• Postmaster Dennis Christian, 48, pleaded guilty on 5 October 2004 to two charges of sexual assault and one of indecent assault against young girls. The court was told on 27 October 2004 that Christian had emailed his principal victim to apologize and express his "deep remorse." He was sentenced to 300 hours' community service and was ordered to undergo counselling.
• Terry Young, 45, a descendant of HMS Bounty midshipman Ned Young, faced one charge of rape and seven of indecent assault over a period of almost 20 years. He was convicted of one rape and six indecent assaults but was cleared of one indecent assault charge. He resented being photographed at the trial, and shoved reporter Kathy Marks aside when she tried to take his picture. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
• Jay Warren, 48, former Magistrate of the Pitcairn Islands from 1990 to 1999, when his office was replaced by that of the Mayor following a constitutional revision. Warren was cleared of his indecent assault charge.

[edit] References

1. ^ New Zealand Press Association, June 8, 2006
2. ^ "Island of shame", Claire Harvey, The Mercury, October 28, 2004
3. ^ "Island of shame", Claire Harvey, The Mercury, October 28, 2004
4. ^ Pitcairn deputy governor Matthew Forbes quoted in "Cost of Pitcairn justice tops $14m", WELHAM Keri, The Dominion Post, April 19, 2006
5. ^ Pitcairners stay free till British hearing, Kathy Marks, New Zealand Herald, 25 May 2005
6. ^ "Britain seeks NZ guards for jail on Pitcairn", WELHAM Keri, The Dominion Post, April 19, 2006
7. ^ Appeal against Pitcairn Island sex charges fails, NZPA, 2 March 2006
8. ^ Judgment of the Privy Council, 30th October 2006

• "Island of the damned", Nick Godwin, The Advertiser, November 4, 2006
• "Pitcain sex trial costs mount to nearly $17M", New Zealand Press Association, November 3, 2006
• "Pitcain islanders due to begin prison terms tomorrow", Ian Stuart, New Zealand Press Association, November 3, 2006
• "Penalty for Pitcairn", The Southland Times, November 1, 2006
• "NZ staff will guard Pitcairn rapists", PACNEWS, November 1, 2006

[edit] External links

• New Zealand Herald - Pitcairn Islands Feature
• Pitcairn Islands Laws (includes judgments of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal)
• Ageofconsent.com - Pitcairn Feature
• "Pitcairn: A Contemporary Comment", article from the New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law (PDF file, 252 kB)
• Reasons for report of the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council upon a petition for special leave to appeal, 11th October 2004
• Pitcairn Trials Act