Nine islanders charged with sex abuse

Nine men from the tiny British protectorate of Pitcairn Island have been charged with more than 60 sexual offences, mostly against teenage girls.

They include 21 rape charges, 41 indecent assault charges and two of gross indecency with a child under 14.

The men – a fifth of the island’s 45 people – were charged after an investigation by police in Kent and New Zealand.

The charges relate to alleged incidents between five and 40 years ago.

Pitcairn Island is little more than a tiny chain of volcanic rocks in the South Pacific, about halfway between New Zealand and Peru.

It was first settled in 1790 by nine crew members from the British ship the Bounty, including first mate Fletcher Christian, who led a mutiny against captain William Bligh.

New Zealand magistrate Gray Cameron revealed details of the charges for the first time during a pre-trial hearing on the island today.

Six of the accused living on the island were granted bail and ordered to reappear for a further hearing at Adamstown on May 23.

The court ordered another person, also a permanent resident, but “temporarily absent” to appear at the May hearing, and issued warrants for the arrest of two other men now living outside the island.

Cameron warned that if the men did not appear voluntarily they would be extradited.

The island is administered by the British government from Auckland – about 3,200 miles away.

The New Zealand government has passed a law to allow the case to be tried in New Zealand, but defence lawyers, who say their clients deny the charges, have challenged the jurisdiction of New Zealand’s courts.

Under the New Zealand law, any prison sentences would be served in a prison there. Auckland has been chosen for the trial because many of the victims and some of their alleged attackers now live in the city, 410 miles north-east of the capital Wellington.