Britain's last Pacific outpost rocked by sleaze

DPA, Wellington, New Zealand
Wednesday, Nov 19, 2003, Page 16

Britain's control over its last territory in the Pacific Ocean -- the remote Pitcairn Islands -- is being challenged in a bizarre court case under way in New Zealand in which 13 men face a range of sex charges going back over 40 years.

The main Pitcairn Island, which is little more than a volcanic rock about half-way between New Zealand and South America, has a population of only 45.

Pitcairn is famous as the first home of nine crew members that were from the British ship the Bounty, including first mate Fletcher Christian, who mutinied against

Captain William Bligh and escaped to settle there with some Tahitians in 1790.

They remained there in secret until 1808, but London claimed it as part of the British Empire nearly 80 years later and still intends to retain it as one of its few remaining overseas territories.

With the main island just 3.2km long and 1.6km wide, it is formally governed from 5,300km away by Britain's senior diplomat in Wellington, New Zealand, and has survived mainly on British aid and sales of postage stamps.

The population has dwindled since peaking at 233 in the late 1930s and rumors of sex involving young children have long been been a part of the insular society on one of the remotest places on earth.

These rumors were the subject of an extended investigation by British police which began in 1999 and culminated in more than 60 charges of rape, gross indecency with a child and indecent assault, some going back to the 1960s, being laid against nine men last April.

Another four who live in New Zealand have since been accused, but the names of all the defendants have been suppressed by the Pitcairn Supreme Court, which is sitting in Papakura, near Auckland, New

Zealand, because of a lack of facilities on the island, which has no airport, no hotel and no harbor.

Cruise ships stop there regularly, but passengers have to be ferried ashore in longboats.

New Zealand Justice Minister Phil Goff said earlier this year his country would simply provide the venue and have no input into the trials, although New Zealanders hold key offices in the Pitcairn justice system, including the judges, prosecutor and the public defender, Paul Dacre.

Dacre launched a pre-trial hearing this week with an application that all charges be dismissed.

According to the New Zealand Herald, he questioned whether Britain actually has had sovereignty "from the first sighting of Pitcairn Island to the most recent ordinances which have been constituted this year."

He told the three judges hearing the case that he also challenged the court's power to sit in New Zealand and questioned whether Pitcairn ordinances complied with human rights.

The hearing is expected to last until Friday.