More than 200 years after it was established by Fletcher Christian and other mutineers from HMS Bounty, the tiny Pacific island community of Pitcairn is once again facing the wrath of the British justice system.
Crown prosecutors are preparing sexual abuse charges against a number of men...
More than 200 years after it was established by Fletcher Christian and other mutineers from HMS Bounty, the tiny Pacific island community of Pitcairn is once again facing the wrath of the British justice system.
Crown prosecutors are preparing sexual abuse charges against a number of men on Pitcairn, a semi-tropical island lying between New Zealand and Peru that is home to fewer than 50 people.
The first trial in more than 100 years involving one of the furthest flung and inaccessible of Britain's overseas territories poses unique legal and logistical problems.
It could also sound the death knell for the settlement, which began as a hideaway for the notorious mutineers who seized control of the Bounty from Lieutenant William Bligh in 1789.
The cases date back to 1999 when a policewoman from the Kent constabulary, who was on Pitcairn to train a local law enforcement officer, investigated a rape allegation and found evidence of widespread sexual abuse of girls aged 12 to 15.
Neither the high commission in New Zealand, nor the Foreign Office, nor the island's prosecutor will give details of the cases but Australian newspapers have reported that up to 20 of Pitcairn's current and past population might be charged.
Even if it is only a quarter of that number, it would affect almost every family in the closely inter-related community.
To try the case, the Crown has appointed an Auckland-based judge, chief justice Charles Blackie, a prosecutor, Simon Moore, and a public defender, Paul Dacre. But the Foreign Office has struggled to find a suitable venue.
As Fletcher Christian intended, Pitcairn is not a place the long arm of the law can easily reach. The 450-hectare (1,125-acre) island has no airport and huge rolling swells make it inaccessible, even by boat plane - it is an eight-day voyage from the nearest major port.
Richard Fell, the Wellington-based governor of Pitcairn island, and a team from the Foreign Office are looking into the possibility of holding a trial in New Zealand, Britain, Pitcairn or other overseas territories, such as the Caribbean.
If the trial was held in New Zealand, it would almost certainly require law changes similar to those that allowed the Lockerbie bombing suspects to be tried in the Netherlands.
"New legislation would be needed to have a Pitcairn court here," said New Zealand's prime minister, Helen Clark. "But the British government is a good friend and we are not unsympathetic."
Pitcairners, used to dealing with their own affairs through an island court and magistrate, have been scathing about the plans. Glynn Christian, the great-great-great-great grandson of the mutineers' leader, told journalists in New Zealand that Britain was trying to destroy a community that had long been a nuisance. The sexual abuse charges, he said, were based on a completely different set of cultural values.
The delay in starting the trial has added to the strains but the Foreign Office said it could not rush arrangements.
Bryan Nicolson, a spokesman for the high commission in New Zealand, said: "We feel that we have to be meticulous so that justice is done to everyone."
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