Pitcairn child abuse trial delayed
Judges and lawyers are putting the final touches to preparations for a string of sex abuse trials that get under way on tiny Pitcairn Island later this week.
Seven men, half the remote British territory’s male population, are facing a total of 96 sex charges, some allegations dating back 40 years, and face lengthy prison sentences if convicted at the trials that are expected to last up to six weeks.
The trials had been due to get under way yesterday, but were delayed, a spokesman said. They are now scheduled to start tomorrow.
“I don’t know if there’s specifically any reason for it other than in the court’s judgment the parties may not have been quite ready,” said Bryan Nicholson, a spokesman for the British High Commission in Wellington, New Zealand.
The size and complexity of the case is unprecedented on this tiny speck of volcanic rock midway between New Zealand and Peru. The arrival of three judges, prosecutors, defence attorneys and media has almost doubled the island’s population of 47.
Most witnesses are expected to give evidence via a video link from New Zealand - which is now home to many people who have left behind the isolated island life.
Just getting to Pitcairn, which has no port or landing strip for aircraft, is a major challenge. Once on the island, people get around using all-terrain quad bikes because the only roads are dirt tracks.
The Pitcairn Islands are a group of five rocky volcanic outcrops – only the largest of which is inhabited – with a combined area of just 47 square 18 square miles. They are 9,250 miles from London.
The tiny population, descendants of the mutineers on the Naval ship HMS Bounty who arrived there in 1790, ekes out a living by selling postage stamps to collectors and handicrafts to tourists on passing cruise liners.
Now the island is a hive of activity as lawyers set up the unusual court – run on British laws and staffed by New Zealanders.
The defendants had a chance to head off trials at a pre-trial hearing last week, but refused to plead guilty when offered the chance – a move that would have cut any sentence they could face.
Some islanders argue that if the men are convicted the tiny community will lose its ability to crew longboats that bring essential supplies to the island - threatening the population’s existence.
At earlier hearings, suspects’ lawyers argued that the inhabitants of Pitcairn long ago severed their ties with Britain by burning the boat that carried them to their isolated island after the Bounty mutiny.
That argument was rejected, allowing the trials to go ahead.
The case started in 1999 when an islander complained to a visiting British policewoman that she had been sexually abused.
Since then, new laws including a child protection act have been passed and police and social workers have been sent to the island.
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