Pitcairn rape victims to sue Britain
Kathy Marks; 29/4/08
Nine women involved in the Pitcairn Island rape trials are considering a class action against the British Government to seek compensation for the abuse they suffered growing up in the remote South Pacific territory. At trials on the island in 2004 and in New Zealand in 2006, eight Pitcairn men were convicted of raping and sexually assaulting young girls, while a ninth man pleaded guilty. Six were given prison sentences, and three are still in jail on Pitcairn - which was settled by mutineers from the Bounty in 1790 and has a population of about 50. In Britain, victims of crime are compensated under a statutory scheme that sets amounts based on the severity of the suffering. But the scheme does not apply to residents of Britain’s overseas territories, although they hold British citizenship. The Pitcairn victims have instructed a New Zealand QC, Bruce Corkill. He wrote to representatives of the New Zealand-based British Governor of Pitcairn, George Fergusson, in September asking that a parallel scheme be set up for the island.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23614232-2702,00.html
Curse of the Bounty
John Lyons; 29/4/08
A few days after six men on Pitcairn island were convicted of sexual crimes against children, journalist Kathy Marks was fishing on the rocks with a group that included Len Brown, 78, who had just been convicted of two rapes. But it was what she saw offshore that struck her as extraordinary. A Pitcairn Island longboat, with a combination of residents and workers from outside on board. In the distance was a fishing boat with two men. One was Randy Christian, who had just been convicted of raping a girl called Belinda; the other man sitting in the boat fishing with him was Belinda’s father. There are few places in the world where not only can men just convicted move freely but where the father of a rape victim would happily go fishing with his daughter’s rapist. This is Pitcairn, a tiny island of 47 people between New Zealand and Chile, where locals were angry at Belinda’s father, rather than Christian, because he had not “controlled” his daughter. It was the allegations of rape by Belinda (name changed) on this remote South Pacific island that triggered some of the most remarkable trials in legal history.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23612885-28737,00.html
Tags: History, Pitcairn Island, Sex Trade, UK