Pitcairn Sexual Assault Trial of 2004 - Historical Background

Historical Background

The remoteness of Pitcairn (which lies about halfway between New Zealand and Peru) had shielded the tiny population (47 in 2004) from outside scrutiny. If present admissions and allegations were to be believed, the islanders had for many decades masked a tolerance for sexual promiscuity, even among the very young, with a corresponding tacit acceptance of child sexual abuse. Three cases of imprisonment for sex with underage girls were reported in the 1950s.

The first time that the outside world heard of this was after Gail Cox, a police officer from Kent, UK, who was serving a temporary assignment on Pitcairn, began uncovering allegations of sexual abuse. When a 15-year-old girl decided to press rape charges in 1999, criminal proceedings (code-named "Operation Unique") were set in motion. The charges include 21 counts of rape, 41 of indecent assault and two of gross indecency with a child under 14. Over the following two years, police officers in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Norfolk Island interviewed every woman who had lived on Pitcairn in the past 20 years, as well as all of the accused. Simon Moore, an Auckland lawyer appointed Pitcairn Public Prosecutor by the British government for the purposes of the investigation, held the file.

Australian Seventh-day Adventist pastor Neville Tosen, who spent two years on Pitcairn around the turn of the millennium, said that on his arrival he had been taken aback by the conduct of the children, but had not immediately realised what was happening. "I noticed worrying signs such as inexplicable mood swings," he said. "It took me three months to realise they were being abused." Tosen tried to bring the matter before the Island Council (the legislative body which doubles as the island's court), but was rebuffed, with one Councillor telling him, "Look, the age of consent has always been twelve and it doesn't hurt them."

A study of island records confirmed anecdotal evidence that most girls had their first child between the ages of 12 and 15. "I think the girls were conditioned to accept that it was a man's world and once they turned 12, they were eligible," Tosen said. Mothers and grandmothers were resigned to the situation, telling him that their own childhood experience had been the same; they regarded it as just a part of life on Pitcairn. One grandmother wondered what all the fuss was about. Tosen was convinced, however, that the experience was very damaging to the girls. "They can't settle or form solid relationships. They did suffer, no doubt about it," he said emphatically.

Tosen opined that accounts of the Pitcairners' past transformation by Christianity, once popularised in missionary tracts, told only one side of the story. He pointed out that 13 of the original settlers were murdered, many in fights over women, before John Adams, the sole surviving mutineer, pacified them with the help of the Bible. "This is the island that the gospel changed, but the changes were only superficial," he said. "Deep down, they adhered to the mutineers' mentality. They must have known that their lifestyle was unacceptable, but it was too entrenched."

In 1999, a New Zealander visiting the island, Ricky Quinn, was sentenced by island magistrate Jay Warren to 100 days in prison for underage sex with a 15-year-old Pitcairn girl.

A bill was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 2002 to allow a trial in New Zealand, based on Pitcairn law, to be held in 2004. However, in 2004 the accused won a legal battle to be tried in Pitcairn. Three judges, several prosecution and defence lawyers, other court staff and six journalists travelled from New Zealand to the island in late September for the seven-week trial, doubling the number of people on the island during their stay. Witnesses living abroad gave evidence remotely by a video satellite link-up.

As of April 2006, the cost of the trial amounted to NZ$14.1 million.