Pitcairn Islands sex abuse trials to go ahead

Seven men charged with sexually abusing children on remote Pitcairn Island have lost their court action in an attempt to prevent their trial under British law.

Seven men charged with sexually abusing children on remote Pitcairn Island have lost their court action in an attempt to prevent their trial under British law.

The Pitcairn Court of Appeal today threw out their appeal against an earlier Pitcairn Supreme Court ruling that Britain did have legal jurisdiction to try the seven under British law.

The decision clears the way for their trial to start next month.

The seven men face 96 charges over allegations of sexual abuse. Some of the alleged offences were committed up to 40 years ago.

Just 47 people live on Pitcairn, which is only one mile wide and two miles long. The island, home to descendants of naval mutineers from the British ship the Bounty in 1790, is administered by a British-appointed governor based in the New Zealand capital, Wellington.

Defence counsel earlier told the appeal court in the New Zealand city of Auckland that rather than being Britain's last dependent territory in the Pacific, Pitcairn had always been a self-governing and independent state.

The defence said that the Bounty mutineers ceased to be British subjects when they burnt the ship, and as Pitcairn never was a British settlement, British law did not apply on the island.

The men's trial is set to begin on the island on September 23 and last several weeks.

In another attempt to halt the trial, lawyers were due in court again tomorrow to argue that the charges against their clients should be thrown out because of the delay of bringing them to court.

They are also expected to move to ask that each of the men be tried separately if the first application fails.