Pitcairn islanders bring challenge to Britain's right to prosecute 'Bounty' descendants in sex abuse case

Two centuries after Captain Bligh was set adrift in an open boat, Fletcher Christian and his fellow HMS Bounty mutineers have returned to haunt the British Government as it attempts to prosecute their descendants on Pitcairn Island.

Thirteen men are facing charges of sexually abusing women and girls on the remote island, in a case expected to go to trial in New Zealand next year. But lawyers for the men argued yesterday that Britain had no sovereignty overPitcairn because it was merely sighted from a British ship and never claimed in the name of the Crown.

Britain, which regards the tiny island as its last dependent territory in the South Pacific, has set up a Pitcairn Island Supreme Court for the purposes of the case. At the request of the Foreign Office, New Zealand has passed legislationto stage the trial, since Pitcairn has little infrastructure and is only accessible by ship. But Paul Dacre, the men's defence lawyer, told the Supreme Court, sitting in Auckland, that Pitcairn did not fall within British jurisdiction and the court was, therefore, illegally convened. He said that while a British captain sighted the island in 1767 - naming it Pitcairn after one of his midshipmen - no attempt was made to land on it or claim it.

Christian and his accomplices settled on Pitcairn in 1790 after searching the South Seas for a refuge from British law. Many of the island's present day inhabitants are direct descendants of the mutineers and their Polynesian wives; a substantial number have the surname Christian.

Mr Dacre claimed that the mutineers' landing did not make Pitcairn a British possession. He said they in effect severed their ties with Britain when they committed a capital offence - punishable by hanging - by burning the Bounty soon after they arrived. "It was the most decisive act any group of people could take against the English Government," he said.

Pitcairners still mark the anniversary of that act by torching a replica of the Bounty every year. "It's a symbol of the attitude of the Pitcairn community towards the British Government, and particularly an indication of their independence," said Mr Dacre,who has been appointed public defender for Pitcairn. The inhabitants, he argued, should be left to deal with the sex abuse case themselves.

Mr Dacre said Pitcairn had its own laws that could be traced back to 1790. "The Pitcairn community remains a self-governing community, a community which can exercise its own sovereignty over itself and, most particularly in the context of this case, has a set of rules and regulations which covers the situation which allegedly occurred on the island," he said.The 13 men are facing allegations of rape and sexual assault against girls as young as three, some of the alleged incidents dating back decades.

Only seven of the men, now living in New Zealand, have been charged so far; the rest will be charged when they are extradited from Pitcairn.

The island, which has a shifting population of about 40 people, lies half way between New Zealand and Peru, and is administered by the British high commissioner in Wellington. Locals want a trial to be held there, but prosecutors say it would be a logistical nightmare. The island has no airstrip and no harbour, little accommodation and insufficient cells. Its only regular contact with the outside world is via cruise ships that stop there for islanders to sell handicrafts to passengers. All supplies have to be taken ashore by longboat .

The court is expected to hear complex legal arguments, including submissions from prosecutors, before making a decision.

The charges were laid after a two-year inquiry by Kent Police, who interviewed dozens of women and girls who lived on the island during the past 40 years. The case affects nearly every family on Pitcairn, and local people say the island has no future if most of its able-bodied men are jailed.