Rapist mayor's sister takes top Pitcairn post

Pitcairn Island has picked the sister of convicted rapist Steve Christian to be its first woman mayor in its 214-year history, it was reported today.

The seven-member governing council on the remote Pacific island, first settled by mutineers from HMS Bounty, unanimously chose Christian's sister Brenda, the island's former police officer, to fill the post until a formal election was held on December 15, British High Commission spokesman Bryan Nicolson said.

Last month, six men were convicted of rapes and sex attacks dating back as far as 40 years on the tiny, isolated island midway between New Zealand and South America.

Steve Christian, who claims to be a direct descendent of Bounty mutiny leader Fletcher Christian, was convicted of five rapes and sentenced to three years in prison.

Brenda Christian will preside over a 47-member community still coming to terms with the verdicts and the revelations of a reign of sex abuse by men on the island.

The six men's sentences, ranging from community service to six years in prison, will not begin until next year at the earliest, after appeals by their defence lawyers against Britain's jurisdiction over the island.

If the men's sentences are upheld, they will serve time in a cell block they helped build on the island.

British authorities sacked Christian as mayor and his son Randy - who was also convicted of sex crimes - as chairman of a key island committee, after the pair refused to resign.

Nicolson said Brenda Christian, born and raised on the island, had spent some years living in Britain and returned about five years ago. She is trained in community policing.