JURIST - Paper Chase: Two more convicted in Pitcairn sex trial

[JURIST] The Pitcairn Supreme Court [Wikipedia backgrounder] found two more men guilty Tuesday of rape and related offences against children as young as seven. The latest conviction of Shawn Christian and Brian Young follow the six other men convicted in October 2004 of committing sexual abuse [JURIST report] against women and underage girls on the British possession of Pitcairn Island [government website] over a period of 30 years. The six men lost their appeal [JURIST report] to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council [official website] in October. The men, including the island's mayor, had asserted that English law did not apply to their case as Pitcairn Island never ratified or approved the British legal system, but the Judicial Committee rejected this argument.

The string of sexual abuse charges implicates about a third of all adult men on Pitcairn Island, whose population is about 50 people. Pitcairn Island [CIA backgrounder] was originally settled by descendants of Fletcher Christian who led the 1789 mutiny against Captain William Bligh on the HMS Bounty. AFP has more.

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