Mayor raped me, woman tells Pitcairn sex abuse trial

A STRING of sex abuse trials opened yesterday on Pitcairn Island, the isolated British territory in the Pacific that is home to descendants of the 18th-century Bounty mutineers.

The first alleged victim said she was raped as a young girl by the island’s mayor.

The unprecedented trials of seven men - more than half the adult male population - on a total of 55 charges are being staged in the island’s community hall, which has been converted into courts staffed by judges and lawyers from New Zealand but operating under British law.