Pitcairn mayor and his son among seven sex abuse defendants
Steve Christian, one of the island’s most prominent members, is charged along with his son Randy and five other men, on 55 charges, including rape, indecent assault and gross indecency.
The court decided to reveal the identities of the accused because everyone on the island, with a population of just 47, already knew who they were, and because newspapers and internet sites outside Pitcairn’s jurisdiction had already published the names, said the trial’s chief justice Charles Blackie.
The names were unveiled as the court rejected an 11th-hour application by the defence to halt the trials because of judicial bias.
The defence had earlier said the lead judge sent to hear the case on the remote Pacific island had shown bias by bowing to pressure from Britain’s Minister for Overseas Territories to press for a trial and avoid any out-of-court settlement.
It was the latest legal challenge to the trial of the men - who account for half the island’s adult male population - over allegations of sex abuse dating back 40 years.
Judge Blackie, one of three judges overseeing the trial, declined the defence application and said the trial would commence tomorrow morning.
The charges against the men stem from 1999 when an islander told a visiting British policewoman she had been sexually abused. Since then, new laws, including a child protection act, have been enacted and police and social workers have been sent to the island.
The defendants could be sentenced to lengthy prison terms if convicted in the trials which are expected to last up to six weeks.
The size and complexity of the case is unprecedented on Pitcairn Island, where descendants of the mutineers on the British navy ship HMS Bounty arrived in 1790.
The inhabitants eke out a living by selling postage stamps to collectors and handicrafts to tourists on passing cruise liners.
The arrival of three judges, prosecutors, defence attorneys and media has almost doubled the island’s population.
On Tuesday, a group of women residents on the island came to the defence of the seven charged men at a meeting, claiming the cases had been blown out of proportion and the victims may have been coerced into testifying.
But prosecution witnesses are expected to testify via video links from New Zealand, home to many people who have fled the isolated community.
