Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004
Encyclopedia
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 living abroad were tried on 41 further charges in a separate trial in Auckland
, New Zealand
, in 2005.
judicial authority over the islands. Defence lawyers for the seven accused men claimed that British sovereignty over the islands was unconstitutional: the HMS Bounty mutineers
, from whom almost all of the current island population is descended, had effectively renounced their British citizenship by committing a capital offence in the burning of the Bounty in 1790, they said. In a symbolic rejection of British rule, islanders still celebrated this act annually by burning an effigy of the Bounty, according to Paul Dacre, the Pitcairn Public defender
. The defence maintained that Britain never made a formal claim to Pitcairn, and never officially informed the islanders that British legislation, such as the Sexual Offences Act, 1956
, was applicable to them.
In a judgment 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 the United Kingdom's Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
(JCPC) decided on a further appeal was rejected. The trial started on 30 September 2004.
On 12 October 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. 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.
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.
and Peru
) had shielded the tiny population (47 in 2004) from outside scrutiny. If present admissions and allegations were to be believed, the islanders had 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 were reported in the 1950s.
The first time that the outside world heard of this was after Gail Cox, a police officer from Kent
, UK, 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, held the file.
Australia
n 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 tried to bring the matter before the Island Council (the legislative body which doubles as the island's court), but was 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 popularised 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.
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 gave evidence remotely by a video satellite link-up.
As of April 2006, the cost of the trial amounted to NZ$14.1 million.
for persuading the women involved to press charges. Some of the women agreed. Under what sources close to the case said 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 were 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 started having sex at 13, "and I felt hot shit about it, too". 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 clarified 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 were vocal defenders. Some present at the Big Fence meeting sat silent and appeared ill at ease, giving reporters the impression that they did not hold the same views.
The forty-five islanders were ordered to surrender their twenty or so guns, both in view of emotions that were running high and to avoid hunting accidents "because the island's population will swell by about 25 during the trial."
Many of the islanders 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 expressed optimism that it could mark a new beginning for Pitcairn as people previously excluded from the power structure would find themselves needed and appreciated for their skills and contributions in a new way.
Many Pitcairners were left feeling 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."
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, she said.
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, was remanded on bail
pending the completion of all seven trials.
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 pleaded not guilty to all charges of rape and indecent assault.
, 48, the former Magistrate of Pitcairn, and Terry Young, 45.
Warren held the office of Magistrate, which had since been renamed Mayor, for most of the 1990s. The 48-year-old Warren stood accused of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl in 1983. The woman (name suppressed), who was 33 at the time of the trial, testified by video link from New Zealand
, where she lived, 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 denied the charge.
The same woman told the court that she had also been abused by Terry Young, who was 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 formally denied all charges against him in court.
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 was one of many complainants, but she withdrew her allegations against Brown before the trial.
In the video, Brown told the police that it was "a normal part of Pitcairn life" http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3598982&thesection=news&thesubsection=world&thesecondsubsection=&reportid=1162662 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.
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, she said. The rapes and assaults continued until she was 15, she testified, 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, the 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.
. The younger Christian was accused of five rapes and seven indecent assaults against four women between 1988 and 1999. He was 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 also 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 previously when she told her mother of the abuse she had suffered. Her mother in turn told Gail Cox, the visiting British
police officer. That 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 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 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 was 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.
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 the defendants 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 was 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 he 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 lived on the island, had indicated an interest in returning to Pitcairn, but they would have had to be satisfied that justice had been done and that the island was a safe place for their families.
Auckland
lawyer Christopher Harder
, who represented one of the accused, appealed for mercy in view of the devastation he said would be caused by the imprisonment of most of the island's able-bodied men. He put forward a proposal for the men to make a public apology and pay compensation to their victims, instead of facing imprisonment, which, he said, could mean the end of the microstate
.
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 could not 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 expressed fears that without those convicted, there would not be enough men to handle the longboat. Others, less connected with the case, noted that the defendants took steps which prevented other islanders from becoming more skilled at handling the boats. This was another example of the "power and control" problems which existed 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.
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 the defendants 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 were carried out until 2006, pending a rule by the Privy Council on the legal validity of British sovereignty and judicial authority on Pitcairn.
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. 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".
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.
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 claim 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 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
, in 2006.
Former Pitcairn resident Shawn Brent Christian, 29, then 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 claim. Randall Christian's appeal against indecent assault of a girl aged under 13 was upheld, but that decision did not affect his sentence of six years on other charges. The men appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.
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 30 October 2006.
As of March 2009 only one prisoner, Brian Young, was still being held in the island's jail, all the others having been granted home detention status. It was reported on April 23, 2009 that Brian Young had been released on house arrest having served just over two years of his original sentence of six and a half years. It is purported that the now empty jail will be turned into a guest house.
Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands , officially named the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, form a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the Pacific...
(including Steve Christian
Steve Christian
Steven Raymond Christian is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Mayor:...
, 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 living abroad were tried on 41 further charges in a separate trial in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, in 2005.
The trial
The trial was punctuated by legal challenges from island residents, who denied the island's colonial status, and with it Britain'sUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
judicial authority over the islands. Defence lawyers for the seven accused men claimed that British sovereignty over the islands was unconstitutional: the HMS Bounty mutineers
Mutiny on the Bounty
The mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789, and has been commemorated by several books, films, and popular songs, many of which take considerable liberties with the facts. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the...
, from whom almost all of the current island population is descended, had effectively renounced their British citizenship by committing a capital offence in the burning of the Bounty in 1790, they said. In a symbolic rejection of British rule, islanders still celebrated this act annually by burning an effigy of the Bounty, according to Paul Dacre, the Pitcairn Public defender
Public defender
The term public defender is primarily used to refer to a criminal defense lawyer appointed to represent people charged with a crime but who cannot afford to hire an attorney in the United States and Brazil. The term is also applied to some ombudsman offices, for example in Jamaica, and is one way...
. The defence maintained that Britain never made a formal claim to Pitcairn, and never officially informed the islanders that British legislation, such as the Sexual Offences Act, 1956
Sexual Offences Act 1956
The Sexual Offences Act 1956 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated the English criminal law relating to sexual offences between 1957 and 2004. It was mostly repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which replaced it, but sections 33 to 37 still survive. The 2003 Act...
, was applicable to them.
In a judgment delivered on 18 April 2004, the Pitcairn Islands Supreme Court
Supreme Court (Pitcairn)
The Supreme Court of the Pitcairn Islands was a special court set up to try the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004. As the Pitcairns have a minimal population they have never had an extensive formal legal system...
(specially established for the purpose of the trial, consisting of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
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 the United Kingdom's Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is one of the highest courts in the United Kingdom. Established by the Judicial Committee Act 1833 to hear appeals formerly heard by the King in Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is one of the highest courts in the United...
(JCPC) decided on a further appeal was rejected. The trial started on 30 September 2004.
On 12 October 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. It was announced on 18 October that upon being sentenced, the defendants would be freed on bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the 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.
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
Sentence (law)
In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...
on 29 October 2004.
Historical background
The remoteness of Pitcairn (which lies about halfway between New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
) had shielded the tiny population (47 in 2004) from outside scrutiny. If present admissions and allegations were to be believed, the islanders had for many decades masked a tolerance for sexual promiscuity
Promiscuity
In humans, promiscuity refers to less discriminating casual sex with many sexual partners. The term carries a moral or religious judgement and is viewed in the context of the mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships...
, even among the very young, with a corresponding tacit acceptance of child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
. Three cases of imprisonment for sex with underage girls were reported in the 1950s.
The first time that the outside world heard of this was after Gail Cox, a police officer from Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, UK, who was serving a temporary assignment on Pitcairn, began uncovering allegations of sexual abuse. When a 15-year-old girl decided to press rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
charges in 1999, criminal proceedings (code-named "Operation Unique") were set in motion. The charges include 21 counts of rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, 41 of indecent assault
Indecent assault
Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in many jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime.Indecent assault was an offence in England and Wales under sections 14 and 15 the Sexual Offences Act 1956...
and two of gross indecency
Gross indecency
Gross indecency is a UK and Canadian legal term of art which was used in the definition of the following criminal offences:*Gross indecency between men, contrary to section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 and later contrary to section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956.*Indecency with a...
with a child under 14. Over the following two years, police officers in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
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, held the file.
Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n Seventh-day Adventist
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
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 tried to bring the matter before the Island Council (the legislative body which doubles as the island's court), but was 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 popularised 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
John Adams (mutineer)
John Adams was the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island in January 1790, the year after the mutiny. His real name was John Adams; He used the name Alexander Smith until he was discovered in 1808 by Captain Mayhew Folger of the ship Topaz...
, the sole surviving mutineer, pacified them with the help of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. "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
New Zealanders
New Zealanders, colloquially known as Kiwis, are citizens of New Zealand. New Zealand is a multiethnic society, and home to people of many different national origins...
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.
A bill was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
in 2002 to allow a trial in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, 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 gave evidence remotely by a video satellite link-up.
As of April 2006, the cost of the trial amounted to NZ$14.1 million.
Local reaction
Pitcairn's 47 inhabitants, almost all of whom are interrelated, were bitterly divided by the charging of most of the adult male population. Many Pitcairn Island men blamed the British policePolice
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
for persuading the women involved to press charges. Some of the women agreed. Under what sources close to the case said 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 were 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 started having sex at 13, "and I felt hot shit about it, too". 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 clarified that the money referred to statutory compensation for victims of crime. Another woman, Meralda Warren
Meralda Warren
Meralda Elva Junior Warren is a Pitcairn Island nurse, radio operator , artist, and author of the cookbook Taste of Pitcairn...
, came up with a conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
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 were vocal defenders. Some present at the Big Fence meeting sat silent and appeared ill at ease, giving reporters the impression that they did not hold the same views.
The forty-five islanders were ordered to surrender their twenty or so guns, both in view of emotions that were running high and to avoid hunting accidents "because the island's population will swell by about 25 during the trial."
Many of the islanders 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 expressed optimism that it could mark a new beginning for Pitcairn as people previously excluded from the power structure would find themselves needed and appreciated for their skills and contributions in a new way.
Many Pitcairners were left feeling 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
Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand is a New Zealand public service radio broadcaster and Crown entity formed by the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news, current affairs and arts network Radio New Zealand National and classical music and jazz network Radio New Zealand Concert with full government funding...
when he declared, '"The Pitcairn people have been bullied."
4 October 2004
In a written statement read out by police at the trial, a former islander (name withheld) alleged that Mayor Steve ChristianSteve Christian
Steven Raymond Christian is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Mayor:...
had raped her twice in 1972 when she was 12, once in bushland and once in a boat moored at Bounty Bay
Bounty Bay
Bounty Bay is an embayment of the Pacific Ocean into Pitcairn Island.Bounty Bay is named after the Bounty, a British naval vessel whose 18th century mutiny was immortalized in the novel Mutiny on the Bounty, and the numerous subsequent motion pictures made of it...
, 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, she said.
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 KentKent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
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, was remanded on bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
pending the completion of all seven trials.
6 October 2004
The prosecution produced a videotape of a police interview with Christian, conducted at Auckland Central police station in New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
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 pleaded not guilty to all charges of rape and indecent assault.
7 October 2004
The trial continued with the appearance of Jay WarrenJay Warren
Jay Calvin Warren is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Political roles:Jay Warren was elected Mayor of the last remaining British dependency in Oceania in the general election held on 15 December 2004, defeating Brenda Christian, who had held the Mayoralty in...
, 48, the former Magistrate of Pitcairn, and Terry Young, 45.
Warren held the office of Magistrate, which had since been renamed Mayor, for most of the 1990s. The 48-year-old Warren stood accused of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl in 1983. The woman (name suppressed), who was 33 at the time of the trial, testified by video link from New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, where she lived, that Warren had accosted her while she was body-surfing with friends in Bounty Bay
Bounty Bay
Bounty Bay is an embayment of the Pacific Ocean into Pitcairn Island.Bounty Bay is named after the Bounty, a British naval vessel whose 18th century mutiny was immortalized in the novel Mutiny on the Bounty, and the numerous subsequent motion pictures made of it...
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 denied the charge.
The same woman told the court that she had also been abused by Terry Young, who was 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 formally denied all charges against him in court.
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 a 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 was one of many complainants, but she withdrew her allegations against Brown before the trial.
In the video, Brown told the police that it was "a normal part of Pitcairn life" http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3598982&thesection=news&thesubsection=world&thesecondsubsection=&reportid=1162662 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
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
, the only church on the island.
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."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, she said. The rapes and assaults continued until she was 15, she testified, when she left to go to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
for her education.
In a video link from New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, 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, the 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.
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 ChristianSteve Christian
Steven Raymond Christian is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Mayor:...
. The younger Christian was accused of five rapes and seven indecent assaults against four women between 1988 and 1999. He was 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 also 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 previously when she told her mother of the abuse she had suffered. Her mother in turn told Gail Cox, the visiting British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
police officer. That 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 left Pitcairn for Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
, 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 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 was 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.
24 October 2004 (verdicts)
On 24 October 2004, the Supreme CourtSupreme Court (Pitcairn)
The Supreme Court of the Pitcairn Islands was a special court set up to try the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004. As the Pitcairns have a minimal population they have never had an extensive formal legal system...
convicted six of the seven accused on 35 of the 55 charges. Only Jay Warren
Jay Warren
Jay Calvin Warren is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Political roles:Jay Warren was elected Mayor of the last remaining British dependency in Oceania in the general election held on 15 December 2004, defeating Brenda Christian, who had held the Mayoralty in...
, the former Magistrate (1990–1999) was found not guilty on all counts. See the defendants 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 was far from resolved. On 26 October 2004, prosecutor Simon Moore told Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand is a New Zealand public service radio broadcaster and Crown entity formed by the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news, current affairs and arts network Radio New Zealand National and classical music and jazz network Radio New Zealand Concert with full government funding...
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
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, but he 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 lived on the island, had indicated an interest in returning to Pitcairn, but they would have had to be satisfied that justice had been done and that the island was a safe place for their families.
Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
lawyer Christopher Harder
Christopher Harder
Christopher Harder is a lawyer based in Auckland, New Zealand.Harder is a well known criminal lawyer in New Zealand with a penchant for self promotion who has defended several high profile murder cases, including the Peter Plumley-Walker case about which he later wrote the book Mercy, Mistress,...
, who represented one of the accused, appealed for mercy in view of the devastation he said would be caused by the imprisonment of most of the island's able-bodied men. He put forward a proposal for the men to make a public apology and pay compensation to their victims, instead of facing imprisonment, which, he said, could mean the end of the microstate
Microstate
A microstate or ministate is a sovereign state having a very small population or very small land area, but usually both. Some examples include Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Nauru, Singapore, and Vatican City....
.
Professor John Connell of the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
said that if the men were imprisoned, they would have to be released temporarily whenever needed to man the longboat, without which the island could not 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 expressed fears that without those convicted, there would not be enough men to handle the longboat. Others, less connected with the case, noted that the defendants took steps which prevented other islanders from becoming more skilled at handling the boats. This was another example of the "power and control" problems which existed 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.
27 October 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 regret. Dennis Christian e-mailed his principal victim to apologize and expressed 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."29 October 2004 (sentences)
The Supreme CourtSupreme Court (Pitcairn)
The Supreme Court of the Pitcairn Islands was a special court set up to try the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004. As the Pitcairns have a minimal population they have never had an extensive formal legal system...
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 the defendants for details). Elaborating on Chief Justice Blackie's statement, Bryan Nicholson of the British High Commission in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
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 were carried out until 2006, pending a rule by the Privy Council on the legal validity of British sovereignty and judicial authority on Pitcairn.
30 October 2004 (fallout)
Bryan Nicolson, a spokesman for the BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
High Commission in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, announced on 30 October that Governor
Governor of the Pitcairn Islands
The Governor of the Pitcairn Islands is the representative of the British crown in the Pitcairn Islands, which are the last remaining British territory in the Pacific Ocean...
Richard Fell
Richard Fell
Richard Taylor Fell CVO was the British High Commissioner to New Zealand and the colonial Governor of the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands from 2001 to 2006....
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. 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".
Christian's conviction and dismissal left the islanders with a power vacuum. On 8 November 2004, the Island Council
Island Council (Pitcairn)
The Island Council is the legislative body of the Pitcairn Islands. It also doubles as the court of the British dependency, making it one of the few bodies in the world to possess both legislative and judicial authority.The Council has ten members...
named Christian's sister, Brenda
Brenda Christian
Brenda Vera Amelia Lupton-Christian is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Mayor of the Pitcairn Islands :...
, interim Mayor pending elections scheduled for 15 December 2004, which were won by Jay Warren.
2007
Brian Michael John Young was found guilty in January of rape and indecent assault and in December was sentenced to six years and six months in prison. He was ordered returned to Pitcairn to serve out his sentence.Appeals
The six convicts began their appealAppeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
in the Supreme Court
Supreme Court (Pitcairn)
The Supreme Court of the Pitcairn Islands was a special court set up to try the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004. As the Pitcairns have a minimal population they have never had an extensive formal legal system...
, in Papakura
Papakura
The Papakura District was the name of a local council territory in New Zealand's Auckland Region that existed from 1989 until 2010. The area made up the southernmost part of the Auckland metropolitan area....
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, on 18 April 2005. Defence lawyers argued that as Pitcairn's colonial rulers
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
had never enforced British law, the six men convicted of sex crimes could not have known that their acts were illegal — a claim 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
Adamstown, Pitcairn Island
Adamstown is the only settlement on, and as such, the capital of, the Pitcairn Islands.-Geography:The settlement is located on the central-north side of the island of Pitcairn, facing the Pacific Ocean and close to the Bounty Bay, the only seaport of the island.-Overview:Adamstown has a population...
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
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, kleptomania
Kleptomania
Kleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...
, attempted murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
(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
Betty Christian
Betty Christian is the Communications Officer and Island Secretary of the Pitcairn Islands. Appointed by the colonial Governor, the Island Secretary is an ex officio member of the Island Council, the legislative body of Britain's last remaining Pacific colony...
, 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 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is one of the highest courts in the United Kingdom. Established by the Judicial Committee Act 1833 to hear appeals formerly heard by the King in Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is one of the highest courts in the United...
, in 2006.
Former Pitcairn resident Shawn Brent Christian, 29, then living in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, announced a legal challenge to the validity of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
lawyers’ and judges’ carrying out a trial in a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
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
Steve Christian
Steven Raymond Christian is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Mayor:...
.
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 claim. Randall Christian's appeal against indecent assault of a girl aged under 13 was upheld, but that decision did not affect his sentence of six years on other charges. The men appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.
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 30 October 2006.
The defendants
The defendants who lived on the island were:- Stevens Raymond Christian, or Steve ChristianSteve ChristianSteven Raymond Christian is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Mayor:...
(born January 1951), 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 GovernorGovernor of the Pitcairn IslandsThe Governor of the Pitcairn Islands is the representative of the British crown in the Pitcairn Islands, which are the last remaining British territory in the Pacific Ocean...
, Richard FellRichard FellRichard Taylor Fell CVO was the British High Commissioner to New Zealand and the colonial Governor of the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands from 2001 to 2006....
. - Randy Christian (born March 1974) 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 was the severest ever handed down on Pitcairn. Governor FellRichard FellRichard Taylor Fell CVO was the British High Commissioner to New Zealand and the colonial Governor of the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands from 2001 to 2006....
dismissed him from the chairmanship of the Internal Committee on 30 October 2004 following his refusal to resign. - Len Carlyle Brown (born March 1926) 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 was allowed to apply for home detention instead.
- Dave Brown, or Len Calvin Davis Brown (born October 1954) 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 ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
journalist Kathy MarksKathy MarksKathy Marks is a British journalist best known for her work on The Independent who became the newspaper's Asia-Pacific correspondent based in Sydney, Australia, in 1999. Marks covered the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004 on and off that Pacific island and has written a book on the...
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 Ray Christian (born 1957) 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 e-mailed his principal victim to apologize and express his “deep remorse.” He was sentenced to 300 hours' community service and was ordered to undergo counselling.
- Carlisle Terry Young (born 1958) a descendant of HMS Bounty midshipman Ned YoungNed YoungEdward "Ned" Young , was a British sailor, mutineer from the famous HMS Bounty incident, and co-founder of the mutineers' Pitcairn Island settlement. He was noted for his ability to sleep through important events....
, 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 MarksKathy MarksKathy Marks is a British journalist best known for her work on The Independent who became the newspaper's Asia-Pacific correspondent based in Sydney, Australia, in 1999. Marks covered the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004 on and off that Pacific island and has written a book on the...
aside when she tried to take his picture. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment. - Jay WarrenJay WarrenJay Calvin Warren is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Political roles:Jay Warren was elected Mayor of the last remaining British dependency in Oceania in the general election held on 15 December 2004, defeating Brenda Christian, who had held the Mayoralty in...
(born July 1956) 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.
As of March 2009 only one prisoner, Brian Young, was still being held in the island's jail, all the others having been granted home detention status. It was reported on April 23, 2009 that Brian Young had been released on house arrest having served just over two years of his original sentence of six and a half years. It is purported that the now empty jail will be turned into a guest house.
Further reading
- "Island of the damned", Nick Godwin, The Advertiser, 4 November 2006
- "Pitcain sex trial costs mount to nearly $17M", New Zealand Press Association, 3 November 2006
- "Pitcain islanders due to begin prison terms tomorrow", Ian Stuart, New Zealand Press Association, 3 November 2006
- "Penalty for Pitcairn", The Southland Times, 1 November 2006
- "NZ staff will guard Pitcairn rapists", PACNEWS, 1 November 2006
- Kathy Marks, Lost Paradise, New York, London: Free Press, 2009, 328 pages
External links
- - NPR interview with the author of "Lost Paradise: From Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed"
- Vanity Fair - "Trouble in Paradise"
- The New York Times - "The Pitcairn Paradise, or an Island of Depravity?"
- 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 (PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
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 2002 (New Zealand)